Consider the Sea Beasts
by Cigne
Summary: Because as much of a seaman as he is, Sanji is still a man, and he drowns as easily as the others under the storms rolling on the ocean. Post Thriller Bark.
1. Chapter 1

_He sets the table for nine, choosing out his best for Brook's welcoming party. The matching tableware is delicate and beautiful and he lays out each place with care and patience…until he reaches the knives. Something tightens around his throat, his vision goes red, and then, seating himself at the head of the table, he methodically snaps every last piece in the set, best china and all. _

When he considered all things in their context within his life, he couldn't say that he was all that surprised at what he found.

_White knuckles stand out on a blood-spattered hand clasped tightly around the slender handle of the boning knife, and as a recent, much-too-raw image skims the surface of his memory, he quickly abandons the half-thawed slab of meat that night, leaving it to bleed out in the back of the fridge. He peels the wooden blade away from where the blood had dried like glue to his skin and drops it into the dirty sink water. His hand bruises._

They had a full week of smooth sailing behind them, a new member had joined their _nakama_, and they had their swordsman back, safe and sound, so the crew's high spirits carried them all the way through a grand banquet of good food and music and merrymaking all the way into the early hours of the morning.

_Dawn hides at the horizon still an hour away, along with the murmurs and chatter of the crew's early risers. He nurses the only thing he has been allowed to nurse—a dry vintage swirling at the bottom of his glass—and hopes that they reach the next island by the end of the week, as his stock of alcohol has dwindled down to rum and this cheap rosé dated back to the year of his birth. It's actually quite fitting, sadly._

Luffy dangled from Brook's bony shoulders last night as they sang loud, off-tune sea shanties along to the musician's fire-rapid playing, but it became quite clear, when he managed to turn their wailing squawks into their very own musical piece, that he was the musician their captain had been holding out for this whole time, and he was definitely worth it. The night passed by in a bright, cheery whirlwind, the strains of their song carrying over the waters, though occasionally he thought it sounded like a the ghost of a dirge that they might have sung.

_It breaks splendidly over the horizon in a red-white burst, expanding like a ball of light. Like a bubble (he still remembers the way the Risky Brothers described it, like the sunrise had been laid out in front of them). Right now, the sun regards him ominously, a beacon of pain. He lets the door slam and doubles over the railing before he can stop himself, and every last drop of his cheap wine comes right back up his throat. When he looks up through a film of tears, Robin and Franky are watching him from the second deck, having come over to investigate the loud noise so early in the day; their eyes are wary and questioning. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he turns on his heel and retreats into the kitchen for the rest of the day. He sleeps between meals and does not open the wine cabinet again._

The beautiful, pale set of dinnerware and its pearl-handled knives joined the rosé in the ocean, and he consoled himself by reasoning that they wouldn't have lasted long on this ship anyway, especially not in Luffy's hands. Lighting a cigarette between bandaged fingers, he opened up the wide windows of the galley and tried to ignore the feeling that he was drowning.

_He burns his first meal since he was eleven years old and still an awkward, unsure novice back at the Baratie, burns it so thoroughly that he tosses the whole pan into the rubbish bin and starts from scratch. Everyone enjoys the open air dinner that evening, or so it seems from his peeping spot at the window by the sink where he holds back frustrated tears and tries to salvage the blackened pan from his disgrace of a dinner, breathing in the lingering smoke like it's only another of his many cigarettes._

His crewmates broke out into another round of singing by the end of the meal, bellies and hearts full to bursting. In the middle of a rousing rendition of Sweetbriar-Jane's Ballad, the sharpshooter and their captain dragged him out onto the Sunny's grassy deck to treat him to a bout of their sloppy dancing. It wasn't long before he let himself be swept up in a haze of alcohol and excellent music, losing his partners and a good portion of his outfit before the night was over. To the crew's surprise, no one was able to keep up with the cook's feverish dancing once he threw himself in; had the music and his legs not given out on him, he would have kept going all night. As it was he ended up flat on his back and laughing with the others, brushing sweaty hair away from his ruddy cheeks and trembling lips, and he reached for the bottle once again.

_The island cannot come soon enough, and when Nami announces that they will make port by dawn, he rolls a soggy, unlit cigarette between his lips and holes himself up in the ship's stores with his inventory logs until morning, reminding himself to keep breathing in the dark, stuffy space. The air around him reverberates with the drumbeat of his heart._

When he considered _these_ things in their context within his life, he couldn't say that he was all that surprised at what he found. Blood on white knuckles, a pearl-white blade, the bubbling sunrise on a grey sea. A mourning song that might have been. Breath hitching in the back of his raw, aching throat, he buried his face in the prickly green blades of the lawn and pretended furiously that he was alright.

_Don't drown, don't drown, don't drown._


	2. Chapter 2

The port was by far one of the largest they had seen, a sprawling compound floating on the harbor with three separate docks for mooring all manner of ships. A small annex on black pontoons provided space for additional vessels and a long, thin pier lined with boats extended into the sea on the north end. In the cool sea breeze, proud Jolly Rogers fluttered against the blue dawn skyline as the telltale clang of ringing seaport bells welcomed wandering ships into the port's harbor, and beyond that lay the island's main shore, lush and dark and towering. It was lovely and loud with the usual sounds that rolled off of pirate ships; it was comfortable and safe.

It was not Sabaody.

"You changed our course, Navigator-san?"

Robin spared a glance out at the harbor with quiet interest, slowly turning a steaming cup of coffee around in her hands while an extra pair of hands turned the pages of the thick book that lay in her lap. Behind her, the young red-haired girl nodded silently while poring over several maps spread out on the kitchen table before her, to the dismay of the cook and their other crewmates (though he would never voice his objection to her and the others made due with eating in other corners of the room).

"Yes, we're making a detour." Nami finally looked up from her charts, looking across the galley at the windows opening up to the harbor. "Staithe Wharf; with rich, naturally occurring resources and markets big enough to resupply entire galleons, it's the almost-perfect restocking island."

"_Almost_ perfect?" Usopp said doubtfully, trying to sneak his plate onto a corner of the paper-strewn table so he could eat properly. "What, does it have crazy wannabe gods or rotting undead corpses possessed by shadows running around?"

She gave him a look and shoved his food back into his hands. "No, it just has a lengthy customs process."

"Can't be worse than shadow-zombies," he grumbled, grabbing his plate and stalking off back to his corner. "Why are we here anyways?"

Franky and Brook looked up from where they sat on the threshold of the kitchen door in quiet conversation.

"Yeah, sis, what's going on?" Franky asked around a mouthful of omelette. "I thought we were heading straight for Sabaody."

Nami began to gather up her things and cleared the table, to the crew's approval. As soon as she had moved everything away, Usopp and Chopper made a dash for the table, nearly stumbling over Zoro ("watch it, idiots") and Brook's long legs ("oh my, ohohoho!") on the way.

"There was a change of plans," Nami said simply, brushing off their scrutiny and heading to the door. "We need supplies and we're stopping here instead."

"Didn't we get enough from Lola's pirates back then?"

Nami froze.

Zoro was standing between the navigator and the door, arms crossed and face set in a neutral expression. He had a nagging suspicion that he knew what this little side trip was about, and the way Nami avoided his gaze was quickly confirming it. The whole crew had been acting strange since he had woken up, not outright and in his face but in tiny, minor ways that crawled under his skin and irritated him to the point where he had tried escaping Chopper's careful watch to go train in the crow's nest. They might know nothing, they might know everything, and the uncertainty was grating on his nerves. Now, all he wanted was for Nami to voice his suspicions so that they could get this out in the open and he could defend his actions back on the island.

"What's the real reason we're stopping here, Nami?"

"I asked Nami to map us a detour."

Everyone's heads turned at the sound of the captain's voice. Luffy was sitting on the kitchen counter at the cook's side, making his way through a mountain of various cooked meats and sliced hams on a bed of scrambled eggs. Seeming not to notice that he had caught his crew's attention, he continued to ravenously shovel food into his mouth despite all the time Sanji had put into trying to get him to learn some table manners. When his dark eyes landed on their stares, he swallowed down half of his drink and finished his plate in one sweep.

"I already talked it over with her and told her we needed to buy important stuff and rest." His youthful face was missing its usual exuberant smile and seemed almost humorless. "Captain's orders. If anyone has a problem with it, take it up with me."

Zoro scowled but backed away, leaning against the doorjamb in quiet anger. No one else said a word, and a shamefaced Nami stood frozen in the middle of the room, arms clutching her maps to her chest as though to protect herself from the silence.

The click of a lighter came to her rescue, and Sanji left a trail of smoke as he moved across the room to clear away empty plates and offer seconds to those who wanted it.

"Luffy," he said casually as he refilled Robin's coffee. "If it bothers the meathead so much, then wouldn't it be better if we just kept going?"

Luffy grabbed a handful of bacon right off the pan and didn't even wince as the hot grease blistered his fingers. "Ouch…no, it's for his own good."

So he had told.

Zoro gritted his teeth and tried to keep his voice steady. "Whatever you've heard, Luffy, it's all lies," he growled, shooting a hateful glare at the cook, who just looked away.

Luffy shook his head. "Zoro, Sanji, it's still my turn to talk."

His expression as he regarded all of them was still unsmiling but he didn't seem angry. It was more like he was thinking something over. The silence in the room stretched out like rubber as they waited for their captain's next words. Finally, Luffy took a deep breath and set his empty plate aside.

"I'm not smart."

Robin and Usopp held back a soft chuckle and they all looked at Luffy in amused bewilderment, wondering what he was getting at. He smiled and held up a finger as if to ask them to keep their silence.

"Wait. I'm not smart," he said again, and then his voice got serious. "And I know I do things without thinking about them, and a lot of times you guys protect me from the consequences."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop by several degrees, and Zoro was afraid that Luffy knew everything about Thriller Bark: his punishment, the ball of pain, all the burden of the captain. Even Sanji looked paler than usual, which was strange because Zoro knew that he had been the one to spill everything.

Luffy's eyes bored straight through Zoro.

"I know you guys keep a lot of stuff from me, even when I'm wrong. If you thought I needed to know, then you would tell me. So, I don't care about that."

He crossed his arms and frowned at all of them challengingly. "But you can't keep me from knowing when I need to let my crew rest after a hard battle. I'm your captain, and if I couldn't even give you that, after everything you've done to take care of me, then I'm worth nothing!"

Zoro's jaw dropped. He could feel the others' various reactions of disbelief around the room and wondered whether this was the same silly boy he had first met back on that marine base in the East Blue.

"That's not true, Luffy," he began hesitantly. "You know that we would tell you if we weren't okay; I promise."

"There's more than one way to be not okay." Luffy's smile was almost apologetic as he caught everyone's stunned looks. "I have to know _some_ things to look after you guys."

"That's very considerate of you, Luffy." Nami smiled sweetly, placing her charts on the counter to wrap her arm around his shoulders. "And strangely mature."

"I know, it's weird. I guess this is what it's like to grow up, huh?" He grinned widely and dangled his legs over the counter's edge. Sanji, for once, was too shocked to scold him for it this time. "I never thought about this kind of stuff back when I first left Fushia."

He tilted his head at the first mate, who was studying him with a closed, somber expression. Zoro tried to return his smile, uncertain of whether he should feel relieved that Luffy wouldn't press him on Thriller Bark or not.

"Feelings are weird, aren't they Zoro?" Luffy sucked the grease off of his fingers. "Kinda like this." He stuck his wet finger into Zoro's ear.

"Wha-! _Luffy_!" Zoro sent him flying across the room, where he collided solidly with an unfortunate Usopp.

Luffy's laughter broke the remaining tension in the room, and even a red-faced Zoro joined in with a chuckle, though he was still squirming at the wet feeling in his ear.

"Luffy, you're evil," he gasped, throwing himself on top of the boy and wrestling him back to the ground. A strangled shout from the swordsman notified the others that Luffy had gotten him again.

"Wet willies for Zoro!" Usopp shouted to the heavens, still annoyed that Zoro had thrown Luffy at him. He stuck his finger into his mouth and jumped into the fray, with Chopper and Brookfollowing suit quickly.

"Ew, don't be gross!" Nami said peevishly, edging away from the boys. "Luffy, get up from there; no_, don't stick it back in_."

Even Robin looked like she were getting ready to join the pile, armed with numerous extra limbs at the ready and a sadistic smile, and then Franky held up his hands and stuck them into his mouth. "Super wet willies for everyone!"

Nami managed to make it out of the galley as it erupted into horrific screams, but she lost Sanji in the chaos. Leaning against the door with a sigh of relief, she gave herself a moment to mourn him before retreating into the navigation office to marvel at the sheer depravity of her crewmates.

Her eyes widened and she shrieked, slapping one of Robin's hands away from her ear. Oh, she shouldn't have let her guard down. "Robin, seriously; that wasn't funny!"

From the galley, Robin's soft chuckle was buried by a rain of Sanji's screams.

"_Get off, Brook!_ _My kitchen- no, stop _doing_ that, Chopper; Usopp, wait, are you guys for real? NO!"_

* * *

Out on the upper deck, Zoro looked out across the water at Staithe Wharf as they approached; he could hear Nami's irritated tone as she scolded Luffy and the others for the breakfast mess, and he was glad that he had managed to escape in the confusion before he got roped into the cleanup.

Sanji's familiar footsteps drew close, and they stopped a few feet from him, just on the far end of the railing.

Zoro didn't take his eyes off the island. "You didn't tell him."

Sanji hummed. "Faithless heathen."

He couldn't help but snort at that.

"You're no saint either." He thought about Sanji's black, narrow shoulders against the light of the sun, ready to bear and crumble under the weight of their world, and he sighed. "Thanks…you know."

Sanji didn't know. "Yeah," he muttered, rolling a cigarette between his fingers. "It was nothing."

Zoro walked down the stairs to join the rest of the crew as they disembarked, out of words to say (and what could he say, really?) and Sanji watched him go, thinking about all of the things he could have said but didn't, and he wondered just why it was so hard for them to just _talk_.

* * *

They made their way up the docks on the southern side of the harbor, leaving Sunny resting sleepily between two sleek schooners. It had only been five minutes since they came to port and Nami was already starting to realize that she had seriously overestimated the ability of a nine-member crew to move through a busy port like this one, especially with a captain like theirs.

"Nami," their captain mewled pitifully.

She kept her gaze fixed firmly on the Dockmaster's offices up ahead, ignoring the incessant tugging on her sleeve.

Luffy tugged at the rough material stretched across his left eye, mourning the loss of his beloved hat in exchange for his makeshift eyepatch. Nami smacked him and told him to leave his disguise alone before shifting little Chopper in her purse.

"This is utterly humiliating," the reindeer whimpered, ducking down to hide in the bag. "I'm not a pet."

"Of course you aren't, darling," Nami said in a sugar-sweet voice. "Now stop talking and bark like a puppy."

"Sometimes I think you couldn't get any crueler, and then you just go and surprise me." Zoro gave Chopper a sympathetic look and ignored the glare that the navigator shot him. "It's like you level up in sadism, only for really weird humiliation."

"She has a great teacher," Robin put in helpfully, adjusting her high collar slightly and waving a mopey Sanji away from her hidden cleavage.

"Oh, that's comforting."

"Don't talk to the ladies so sarcastically, mosshead."

"Stay _out_ of this, curlicue; I swear to God your stupid white-knighting is almost as bad as your ridiculous groveling."

"What? It's called chivalry, you backwards asshat."

"Prince Charming, more like Prince _Dumbass_."

"_What_?"

"Shut _up_, you blockhead idiot dingdongs!"

Luffy grinned from under his blindfold. "That was a good one, Nami!"

Exasperated, the navigator adjusted his 'eyepatch' so that he could actually see. The point was to cover the scar under his left eye, anyway, so it didn't matter that it wouldn't stay around his forehead. "There, just…keep it there."

"Aye."

She turned to look at the rest of the group tiredly. "Okay, I'm going to try getting us through the customs without major financial costs, okay? Don't take off your disguises; our bounties are too high to risk walking casually around in the open."

"And keep those two away from each other." She gestured rudely at Zoro and Sanji, who reluctantly moved to opposite sides of the group and glared furiously at each other to the discomfort of the group in the middle.

"Ah, stuck in the middle with the monkey," Usopp sighed, sinking down onto the deck with the others, and then his eyes lit up. He grinned at the others.

When Nami returned with the Dockmaster, the Straw Hats were engaged in a lively game of Monkey in the Middle, with Zoro and Sanji tossing a cackling Luffy over the heads of the rest of the crew while also insulting each other as loudly as they could from where they stood, red-faced and raving. A small crowd of onlookers had gathered nearby, watching the game in confused, morbid curiosity.

"Um, inspiration struck?" Usopp offered, slowly backing away from a livid Nami.

The Dockmaster looked at them with an unruffled expression on his weathered face, and Nami and Robin quickly guided him away from the spectacle and back into the office, with the rest of the subdued pirates following sullenly.

"So, your papers appear to be in order," the man said dully, barely seeming to glance at the documents in front of them. Nami sighed inwardly in honest relief; she had spent so much time forging these papers, but if he didn't bother to look for mistakes or inconsistencies then that meant there was little chance they would get caught.

"Of course, we always keep an up-to-date record of the ship and the crew in the Quartermaster's office," she lied, taking the fake papers back nervously. "Order is next to godliness, as I always say!"

"I thought it was 'cleanli- _ow!_"

"Mm." The man was not impressed. "Anyway, Miss…?"

"Sami."

"Right. Like I told you earlier, all that's left is the mandatory inoculation before you can proceed to the inner city."

"Wait, inoculation?"

Chopper's head peeped out of Nami's purse, worry shining in his big brown eyes. "What kind of immunization are we talking about?"

"It's for healthcare and safety reasons solely; I have assured your Miss Sami that it's perfectly routine and harmless."

Luffy picked at his nose with a frown. "Ah? What's an inoculation?"

Chopper hopped out of the bag and dodged Nami's and Robin's hands as he ran up to the Dockmaster's desk. "It's a type of vaccination, huh? But against what?"

The man stood up and walked over to the wall opposite his desk, tapping a certain faded document that was plastered to the wall. "Around two hundred years ago, a rare virus that originated on these islands wiped out most of the population of Staithe Wharf. It was a nightmarish situation, but eventually Marine scientists came up with a vaccine that has since nearly eradicated the disease."

His gaze was calm and bored as he recited this bit of history, revealing just how little he seemed to care about it. He spoke with the air of someone who had been forced to repeat this to countless sailors and seamen over the years. "Nowadays, it's perfectly safe in the city, but strains of the virus are possibly still contained in the forests of the island, so no one is allowed in there."

The Dockmaster paused. "Shall I get one of the Port doctors to give you all the gory details?"

"No, thank you," Nami cringed, glancing down at the Straw Hats doctor. He still seemed uneasy. "It's perfectly safe, isn't it, Dockmaster?"

"Absolutely. The reports do not lie, miss." He waved a thick stack of papers in front of them. "The vaccine is just for prevention only, nothing big."

"_I'll_ be the judge of that." Luffy narrowed his eyes and snatched the papers from the man. Without even glancing at them, he handed it down to the little reindeer. "Chopper, be the judge of this for me."

"Rude idiot," Nami growled, smacking him repeatedly across the head with her purse. "_And it's Dopper, you airhead_."

"_Na_- I mean, Sami," he whined, holding his head. "Okay, okay; Dr. Doppler, _pleeee-ease_ be the judge of this for me?"

"Being called doctor does _not_ make me happy, dumbass." Chopper could have danced with joy at those words, but a more pressing concern was at hand. He immediately flipped through the medical reports, furrowing his brow as he read the pages upon pages of medical jargon with an experienced, critical eye. "Just give me fifteen minutes."

* * *

Zoro and the others sat at the end of the docks, waiting for their crewmates to return from the inoculation. He stared out into the ocean, fingers tapping idly against the hilt of his swords. Behind him, he could feel the stares of his other crewmates on his back, and he scowled.

Chopper had authorized the vaccine, seeing as "the reports were sound" and he found "the experimental trials had not given a reasonable doubt as to the effectiveness and safety of the vaccination". The one problem that he'd discovered was that because of the nature of the administration of the injection, they would be exposed to trace amounts of seastone ("it occurs naturally in the reservoirs of the island where they derive the vaccine from", he had explained to the confused pirates).

Nami had immediately kicked the Devil Fruit users from the room.

"Out! You guys can stay behind and guard the ship while we're in the medical offices. Don't look at me like that; we'll be fine. We can handle ourselves."

Luffy had all but demanded that Zoro stay with them. "I want to play wrestling, Zoro," he had whined, and Nami had agreed with his decision.

"You guys need at least one swimmer to look after you on these docks," she reasoned as she, Usopp, Sanji, and Franky were prepped for the injection. "So take good care of them, Zoro; you're our strongest."

Zoro rolled his eyes. What was she trying to do, console him for the fact that he wouldn't have to get stabbed with needles by stupid quacks parading around in white coats like they knew everything? Inoculation. What these island people needed was to train themselves to resist the stupid disease.

"I know what you're thinking."

Chopper was looking up at him with a worried frown. "I know it might not make much sense to you guys, but vaccinations are a good thing. Most people aren't naturally as strong as you, Zoro, and even you couldn't fight off a deadly virus just like that."

Curiosity had drawn the rest closer to them, even Luffy, who had taken to sulking on the Sunny's figurehead when Zoro had refused to play with him.

"A vaccination is basically a way for the body to learn to resist diseases and viruses that it couldn't handle on its own. This is the strength training for these people. It's how they get stronger."

"Wow," Luffy gasped, draping himself over Zoro's shoulders. "Chopper, you're going to make something like that for us, right?"

"I plan to do better than that," the little reindeer grinned excitedly. "I'll cure every last strain of this virus, along with all the other diseases of the world."

They smiled at the mention of Chopper's dreams. Big dreams were one of the Straw Hats identifying characteristics, and each of them gladly and wholeheartedly supported the others' dreams. When one Straw Hat believed it, they all did. It was simply fact.

"I'm glad to hear that, because I for one plan never to go through that again, little bro." Franky and the others were making their way down the south docks toward them, looking disheveled and unmistakably miserable.

"What happened?" Chopper jumped to his feet, instinctively going into doctor mode over his crewmates. "What did they do to you?"

The shipwright crossed his arms over his chest and scowled. " I don't want to talk about it."

"He got the injection into his butt." Usopp looked positively gleeful as he said it. "It was all kinds of hilarious."

"Longnose-kun nearly fainted when they gave him his shot," Franky spat back, and Usopp stuck his tongue out at him.

"Guys, please stop," Nami groaned, rubbing her arm tiredly. "I'm really sore and hungry and I just want to rest."

Robin frowned. "Are you alright, Navigator-san?"

"The shitty doctor couldn't find her vein, the moron." Sanji was livid, rubbing absently at his own arm. "He kept stabbing her arm with the needle like it was a fucking meat tenderizer. Seriously, even Luffy could have done a better job."

"Does that mean I can try it-?"

"No," came the unanimous response. The captain wilted immediately.

The crew followed Nami back to the ship, listening as she explained the details of the vaccination. "After a twenty-four hour period of inoculation and another thorough exam, we'll head into the city to stock up on anything and everything that we might need, got it? So don't forget to make a list of any supplies you need and give it to me; we'll take care of it once we get the okay."

They nodded in agreement, starting to discuss what they would pick up at the markets with each other. As they made their way up the gangplank, Zoro noticed that their captain was missing from the group. He looked around in bewilderment, wondering how they could have lost their loud, energetic-

He saw one of the pirates from the large brig several ships down talking to the boy on the docks. They were gesturing grandly, and Luffy was getting visibly excited. Soon, pirates from the other ships began to join them on the wooden planks, and the Straw Hats sighed, preparing themselves for another battle ("come on, we just got here").

Then, the conversation stopped abruptly, and their captain walked quickly back to the Thousand Sunny, the crowd of pirates parting in a path just for him.

Luffy leapt up onto the figurehead and turned around to face his crew with a great big grin on his face.

"Guys, we are going to a feast tonight! And there's going to be lots of _meat_!"

Zoro rolled his eyes and smiled as the others relaxed noticeably. It was always that way with Luffy; people either hated him or wanted to be his friend. Not that he minded. After the events of the past few weeks, free food and drinks sounded great. "Aye, captain."


	3. Chapter 3

There was a lot of waiting around to do on Staithe Wharf, between the twenty-four hours of customs process to enter the inner city and the queue of ships leaving the harbor, so the monotony of long delays and quiet days on the peaceful port was broken up by endless nights of feasting. The locals of the island's outer city allowed the pirates their festivities and even indulged in them—happy, complacent outlaws were better than restless ones, in the long run, even if sometimes they had to break up a few fights.

"They have the manpower to do it; there are always Inner City sentries posted at the towers on the border and they see everything."

If they ever caught whiff of trouble stirring on the docks, they were upon the port like lightning, swiftly ending the troublemakers before anything could happen.

It had only gotten to that point once.

Luffy scratched at his ear idly, and to anyone who didn't know him it might have seemed like he wasn't paying attention, but Nami could tell that the distracted look in his eyes was mostly superficial; if it ever came down to it, he would be ready to handle whatever danger came his _nakama's_ way. She looked attentively at the pirate captain speaking to them, to reassure him that his advice wasn't going unheeded.

"They overlook us as long as we don't flash our piracy around and stay out of trouble." Captain Thaddeus of the Lathos Pirates took off his tricorne and turned it over in his hands, frowning slightly. "You can't wear things like this in the Inner City, not if you want to pass as a civilian."

"Those monsters!" Luffy exclaimed, suddenly very focused on the conversation. "How can they be so horrible?"

From the helm of the Sunny, Franky resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Oh, come on, Luffy. Can you really not handle a few hours without that old hat?"

Luffy's eyes were round and wide, as though he could not fathom that one of his own could say such a thing. "Franky, I trusted you."

"You've obviously never heard the story of how he got that thing," Zoro put in helpfully from his post at his captain's side, holding the young man up from his near swoon. "Luffy, calm down, please."

"Aye, lad; a captain's hat is his pride and a sign of his prestige." Thaddeus stood up and placed the hat back on his head with a long, hard look at Franky before leaving. "Don't underestimate its importance; to do so is to severely disrespect that honor."

He turned to the rest of the group and bowed his head slightly. "Captain, we'll speak again sometime, I hope."

"Yes-sa." Luffy waved at the man without his usual cheer, although Zoro didn't have to hold him steady anymore.

Franky sighed as Thaddeus walked away.

"Sorry, I didn't mean anything by it." The shipwright leaned over the edge of the ship and waved down to the captain. "Luffy, how about you tell me about your hat?"

The Straw Hats captain brightened, and he launched himself at Franky, nearly knocking them both into the water. "Yay, you're going to love this story! It's the most defining moment of my life, next to the time I spent with my brothers growing up, and the time that old Gramps threw me into the forest-"

"Gee, now I'm really sorry I said anything," Franky muttered under his breath, and Nami and Zoro shared a knowing grin. It was likely that Luffy would talk the shipwright's ear off, right up to tonight's dinner and celebrations. They pitied him but certainly weren't going to save him from what he had brought on himself.

"It'll be good for him to know the story anyway," Nami whispered, taking her newspaper out of her bag and settling in for the longwinded tale. "Brook should listen, too. I don't think he's heard it yet."

Luffy would have kept going through a second retelling of the story when Brook showed up, to Franky's growing despair (his unrelated tangents made the story longer than necessary, although he was morbidly fascinated with the details of his captain's chaotic upbringing) , but just then the captain found a new distraction in the form of the feast preparations.

"Guys, look at that sea king! It's huge!"

Luffy clambered onto the Sunny's railing and gestured excitedly at the great pale green beast that one of the pirate groups was bringing forth from the other side of the harbor. The others could already see their captain salivating at the thought of eating it at the feast.

"It looks so tasty," he moaned longingly and grabbed his stomach. "I wish we could eat it now."

"Be patient," Nami said, standing up and walking closer to the main boardwalk where the preparations were taking place. "Everyone's doing the best that they can right now."

The pirate crews had formed a loose alliance over the matters regarding the feast, with the strongest of their men fighting down the sea kings and other prey that would form the main courses, and now the cooks were diligently working on getting everything ready to cook and serve that evening. They worked at a furious pace as the meat kept coming in, scaling, gutting, and slicing everything up into manageable parts for a second group of cooks to season and prepare. Somewhere within the frantic bustle and chatter, helping with the organization of the whole affair, was their own cook.

His blue hooded sweatshirt came into view, and then Sanji's voice carried out over the noise as he directed another kill onto one of the tarps laid out on the docks. They couldn't hear what he was saying. but he looked pleased with the catch, a fine blue-and-silver-finned sea king with sleek scales that shimmered in the sunlight. A wide grin spread across his face.

"Do you like that one, Sanji?" Luffy bellowed, waving his arms over his head and nearly catching Franky across the head. "We caught it just for you!"

"You shitty bastards; you're going to like it even more when we're done with it!"

He rolled up his sleeves and called over several of the cooks to help him, and they started on the beast with tireless vigor and skilled hands. They talked and joked with each other as they worked, and it was like seeing a whole different side of Sanji. The crew had seen him cook alone in their kitchen countless times, but his interactions with the other cooks were certainly new—and very refreshing. It was something like the Baratie, where barbed insults and full out aggressions were the norm between the cooks, but out here Sanji had nothing to prove, and no reason to be defensive. He shared a smirk with the brown haired pirate on his left and they all burst out laughing at something that one of the others said.

Nami folded her arms over her chest and smiled softly, her newspaper hanging limp and forgotten in her hand. "Don't you think it's funny, that we'd never see him talking like that on the ship? Like he's got nothing to hide at all."

Luffy made a noncommittal noise and let his legs swing lazily over the railing, but Zoro was silent. He stared at the pirate cooks with an intensity that burned in his gaze, hoping that the shit-cook could feel it bore into his back.

The cool crisp air rang with Sanji's laugh.

* * *

Nami had retreated to her bedroom, and Usopp and Franky lay sprawled over the couch and settee, respectively; the mid-afternoon hour had brought a sudden bout over the inoculated members of the crew. Brook and Robin helped Chopper get them settled in comfortable positions before he ordered them to a strict bed rest until he was satisfied with their condition.

"They're probably adjusting to the vaccine," he said thoughtfully, taking the thermometer from Nami's mouth and checking the reading. Her temperature wasn't even close to a fever, which came as a great relief to the doctor. "Let's just stay on the safe side and keep them in bed for now."

Of course, that was easier said than done when it came to the cook.

Zoro leaned against the door frame of the Sunny's galley in silent anger, watching him wash up the knife set he had used all morning on the docks. The handles were black, and he vaguely remembered a pale white set that he had seen the cook use before; he had thought that he preferred to use it instead. In fact, he hadn't seen any of the white handled pieces that the cook normally used.

"I'm busy, mosshead; if you want someone to annoy, go stick your head in the ocean and I'm sure your marimo kin will be happy to talk to you."

"You clearly heard the doctor's orders, idiot cook. Are you trying make yourself pass out?"

Sanji snorted. "Oh, you're one to talk, musclehead. I already told you that I feel fine."

Zoro had half-decided that he would just knock the idiot out again. It was only the memory of his face, hurt and betrayed as unconsciousness darkened his vision, that made him hold back. Why did he have to be so difficult?

"You're always like this," he growled, crossing his arms over his chest and trying to make up his resolve. One well placed hit would do it, and then he could drag his sorry ass to the men's quarters. "You keep pushing yourself too far, and one day you won't be coming back."

"At least when I don't come back, it'll be because I've already planned for it." Sanji's face was red and furious; he was practically shaking in anger. "You, on the other hand, really have no concept of human limits or the finality of death. It's like you think you're invincible."

The cook gave a short, rough bark of a laugh, dropping the knives into their slots in their storage block and rounding on Zoro with renewed incense.

"It's too bad your sense of direction is shot, otherwise you'd probably get it into your stupid head that you could carry the whole damn ship to Raftel for Luffy. That's how much you know about where your limits lie."

"No, I actually know where my_ goals_ are," he corrected, pushing off the wall and walking calmly towards the cook. "And I wouldn't let something like_ human limits_ stand in my way; that's the difference between you and I."

Sanji had gone white as a sheet, and he retreated from Zoro's reach, seeming to anticipate what the swordsman was planning to do. He leaned against the counter heavily and looked away.

"Shut up or leave, now."

"Does it hurt to hear the truth?"

"I said _shut up_!"

Sanji slammed his hand down on the countertop, surprising both Zoro and himself. He seemed to recover quickly and withdrew into his anger.

"You can preach at me all you want about pushing myself too far, but the _truth_ is that you're just a hypocrite." His eyes were narrowed and glaring under his messy bangs, and every inch of him screamed hatred and hostility. Pointing a shaking finger at the swordsman, he seemed to gain strength from Zoro's shocked expression, and the words began to pour out of his mouth.

"You're nothing but a big, fat _brute_ of a hypocrite; don't pretend that you're better than me. I don't have to hear _bull_ from you so get out of my face before I plant a foot through all your self-righteous shit, _bastard_."

_"When it's from the first mate, you _will _listen to all this self-righteous shit, is that clear?"_

The cook couldn't seem to believe that he had just pulled rank on him (and to be honest, he couldn't believe it himself). He stormed past Zoro and out of the galley, letting the door slam with such force that the frame rattled.

Zoro fumed, and he put his fist right through the wall separating the galley from the smaller sitting area on the main deck. Robin, Brook and Luffy looked at him through the hole in the wall, but he didn't even glance at them as he stomped to the door and threw it open again.

"And if Luffy ever asked me to, you can bet I'd carry this thing to Raftel _and_ back, you shithead coward!"

* * *

Zoro's anger had ebbed by the time he found the cook out on the docks near the Dockmaster's offices, curled up into himself on the edge of the pier (and he had not gotten lost; the walkways had obviously been moved since he last came this way, dammit). Sanji's soft, even breathing gave away his unconscious state; sleep had smoothed away all the angry, tired lines on his pale face, and Zoro wondered when he had last gotten any real rest. He had never seen him look so thoroughly spent and on the brink of exhaustion. Slowly, he walked closer and reached a hand out to touch his shoulder.

"He asked us not to let you near him."

Zoro blinked in surprise, and he turned around to see some of the cooks who had been working at Sanji's side all day. They looked at him expectantly, stances tense and ready for a fight.

So it had come to this. His chest felt tight and he thought that he would scream his head off at the sheer stupidity of this whole thing. Sanji would have known that these sea cooks, as strong and fearless as they were, had nothing on him; he could finish them in a matter of seconds without even drawing one sword. _But it's the fact that he asked them to keep me away…_

Defeated, he lowered his hand and stepped back, and the men moved protectively around Sanji. Swallowing back his anger, he turned around and headed back down the docks in search of the Sunny, trying to ignore the bitter taste left in his mouth.

It hadn't hurt, not really.

* * *

By the early evening, only an hour away from the feast, Nami and the others were back on their feet and as healthy as ever. Their impromptu afternoon nap had done them a lot of good, apparently; healthy color had returned to their cheeks and they were bright-eyed with energy and strength. Chopper couldn't have been happier with the results of their checkups.

"I guess we just needed a little rest and time to adjust," Nami said over a cup of hot tea, looking across the table at the others.

They had all woken up with a ferocious thirst and drank it like it was the last cola in the desert, as Franky put it. Usopp had already downed his cup thirstily and was on his second, while Sanji happily provided several kettles of the bitter black tea, not discriminating between his Nami-swan and the others, for once. Two empty pitchers of water sat on the counter behind them, and the others were starting to worry that at the rate they were going, their bladders would burst before they even felt the need to go to the bathroom.

Luffy chatted happily with them at the table, pleased that his crew was awake and ready for a long night of feasting on the sea kings they had helped to catch and prepare.

"Meat, meat, meat, we're having lots of yummy, tasty meat," he sang, and Brook immediately drew out his violin, joining him in a quick, made-up chorus consisting mostly of the phrases "we're having meat" and "I want it all"; the musician eloquently named it "Luffy's Theme".

The Booster Shot Four, as the crew had taken to refer to their inoculated members, did have to make an emergency trip to the bathroom before they left the ship, to everyone's amusement. Nami had gotten the first turn, though they almost said to hell with chivalry in their desperation. Luffy and Chopper had burst into helpless giggles as they wriggled nervously outside the bathroom ("I know that one; Ace called it the pee-pee dance!"), and even Zoro cracked a smile at that comment.

Out on the docks, they joined the other groups on the central platform where they had set up as much food and drink as they could manage. Many of the crews had to sit on the adjacent boardwalks and some had drawn out their smaller boats onto the harbor for more room to sit. The cool night air was cut through by the heat flowing off of the great bonfire raft they had anchored to the center of the harbor, and smoke billowed up in huge orange-and-grey clouds against the black sky. All along the walkways, someone had lit up torches in a path to the center of their gathering; even Zoro couldn't get lost in this setup, Usopp had said jokingly, earning himself a good thump over the head.

Luffy had gone wild at the sight of the piles of food, and easily found himself a spot nearest the banquet tables, where he was likely to spend the entirety of the night gorging himself on everything he could lay his hands on. Then the sound of a violin warming up pierced the din, and the pirates threw themselves into the celebration without hesitation.

"These guys are really something," Franky grinned, tearing into a new steak with nearly as much enthusiasm as their captain. "I've never seen so many different pirate crews getting along like this, and not even for an alliance."

Robin looked up from the wine swirling at the bottom of her glass. "The locals said it's a sort of truce that everyone agrees to when they enter these waters. I suppose it makes sense, being so close to the Red Line…"

Usopp frowned thoughtfully. "Kinda like 'everything is about to try to kill us even more, so let's not fight?'"

Franky laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "That's the spirit, Longnose!"

"I don't really think that was a proper response to my question."

Zoro tuned them out and downed another cup of rum, slamming it down before looking around for another bottle. The table he sat at was disappointingly lacking in the way of alcohol, but he didn't really want to separate from his crew; a truce it might have been, but pirates could be nasty, underhanded fiends when it suited them. Which was most of the time, anyway.

The Straw Hats' cook set a bottle down in front of him, and Zoro looked up with a start. Sanji was staring straight into his eyes when he addressed not the swordsman, but the sniper at his side.

"It's an undiluted flask of sake, stored in cedar and with a rich, full-bodied flavor. Let him know that I think he'll like the strong, earthy taste, Usopp?"

The young man looked like he didn't know what to make of the situation, glancing between his two crewmates frantically. "Um….yeah, okay. But why don't you just-ask-him-okay-just-walk-away, that's cool too."

Zoro scowled and opened the flask angrily, daring Usopp to say anything. The sniper took one look at him and edged closer to Robin and Franky for safety.

"Smart move," the swordsman growled, throwing down a full cup before directing his fury at the cook, who had already moved to the other side of the platform. So he was still mad, huh? That was too bad, because Zoro _had_ gone to talk to him and make things up, except the little shit cook had left him _other_ idiot cooks as _guard dogs_. If he refused to talk with him, that was fine. He didn't care anymore.

He took another drink straight from the bottle and paused after the second gulp. That stupid curlicue knew him too well. "…it's good."

Usopp smiled weakly, wondering if he should risk talking to him and figuring out what was going on between him and Sanji. As he had mustered up the courage to ask the swordsman to pass the salt (What? He had to ease into the conversation first!), a loud commotion from the other side of the pier caught their attention.

For several moments, all of them were silent, oblivious to the merriment continuing on around them. Franky was the one who voiced what they were all thinking.

"Those guys look like _demons_."


	4. Chapter 4

**Warning**: This chapter contains graphic depictions of blood, gore, and mentions of cannibalism and mental health issues. Please, please heed the warnings on this fic and the updated Mature rating; I don't want to cause anyone trauma or discomfort.

* * *

Sanji had done his best to avoid the shitty mosshead all evening, and with the party in full swing, it wasn't actually that hard. He fixed the lapels of his new suit, straightened his gold tie and white shirt, and stepped out onto the floor with a loaded tray fresh from the grill, moving easily between tables and rowdy, drunken pirates who couldn't stay upright anymore. Somewhere in that mess, he knew Nami was probably out-drinking them all and outwitting them of their money as well. He grinned to himself at the thought of how happy she would be at the end of the night.

Luffy had caught him a few times and dragged him out to dance when he wasn't waiting on tables, but for the most part he had been hard at work at the grill or on the floor refilling empty pitchers and platters. Looking out across the crowded platforms and walkways, he located Zoro and the others at one of the main tables, still going at the food like they might never eat again.

Out on the ocean, that might actually be the case someday.

He shook his head of those dangerous thoughts and returned to the grill, where he took over for Mikolo, and the sea cook gave him a grateful smile, leaving to sit down and eat something.

"Have some of the swordfish at your captain's table; the flavor is supposed to be exquisite."

Turning his attention to the food, the cook tried to keep his thoughts away from Zoro, but all he had been able to think about was him. Their argument in the galley earlier had really shaken him up, because it confirmed what he had learned back in Thriller Bark, and in the weeks that had followed. Sanji brought a hand to his temple and rubbed his head wearily, pushing away the image of Zoro's white handled blade lying abandoned on the broken stone ruin that remained of the island ship after their battle.

He couldn't face the thought of it anymore._ It wasn't fair_. They were pirates, they were _nakama_, but he wasn't supposed to make him feel this much. He wasn't supposed to feel this much, and Sanji didn't know how to make it right. And the worst of it was that he knew he could never affect the swordsman as much as Zoro affected him.

All he could do was avoid him and wish that Zoro felt _something_, even if it was just anger and confusion.

"It's pretty much what I've been feeling this whole time, at any rate," he grumbled to himself, letting the sound of Brook's violin wash over him. The musician had set up with some of the other musically inclined pirates, and though they had a mixed bag of very different instruments, they managed to get a fine sea melody going together. The strong rhythm had brought most of the pirates to their feet, and many still held a sloshing tankard in their hands as they danced around on the largest free platform left on the docks. The cook nodded his head along to "Tommy-Juun's Hanging" and marveled at the way that the Straw Hats' musician could make a violin sound so lively and festive. It made him want to get back out on the floor, but he knew that Luffy would be around to drag him out for the next round soon enough.

There was a clamor from one of the piers on the northern end of the port, and Sanji looked up from the food he was cooking.

"A new ship?"

They were large, muscular men, all of them well over six feet tall, with inky black hair pulled back into topknots or just hanging down their backs in braids. Heavy furs and clothes covered their solidly built frames, and what little skin was exposed had been painted in deep, vivid colors and intricate designs. Beneath the hues and dyes, their eyes were pitch black and fathomless; the effect was a terrifying, almost demonic look.

Their demeanor didn't help much, either. They walked as though they were planning to walk into a battlefield, not a feast. Sanji left the grill to one of the other cooks and began to make his way over casually, scanning the crowds for his crew.

They were still seated at the table, to his relief, but he knew that if there was a fight coming on, Luffy would gladly throw the whole crew into the mess without a second thought. If there was anything he loved as much as food, it was a good fight, and the new pirate crew looked like strong, interesting opponents. He dearly hoped it wouldn't come to that, he thought, glancing furtively at Zoro.

Sanji stepped closer to the cooks gathering on the boardwalk that was directly parallel to the one that held the newcomers, tucking his hands into his pockets and letting his shoulders slump into a hunch.

"What's going on?"

The Lathos cook looked over his shoulder. "Oh, it's you, Sanji-san. It's kind of a delicate situation right now; they actually don't speak the Common, and no one understands their tongue."

He glanced at the men standing before two of the pirate captains, speaking a strange, guttural language that he had never heard before. They sounded angry, and the captains didn't seem to be holding up well in front of them.

"Does anyone know what they want?" he asked, thumb flicking over his lighter. He would probably have enough cigarettes to last him the night if the fight broke out, but tomorrow's nicotine withdrawal would be hell. "We have more than enough food for them, if your captains want to let them in."

"That's not the problem; they actually _bring_ food to cook with them."

"And?" He was waiting for the last piece to click into place so he could see the whole picture. "There are over fifty sea cooks out here, and good ones at that. Let them in."

Mikolo shook his head. "They won't let just anyone touch it, and we've never been able to understand what they're trying to tell us."

Sanji's gaze flickered across the pirate group across from them, slowly singling out the leader. His face was barely visible underneath the fur-lined hat he was wearing. "You speak like you've seen them before."

"Yeah," the brown-haired man said nervously. "They come here every so often, and it hasn't ended well once. It's like they're waiting for something from us."

He looked back only to find empty air. "Sanji-san?"

Sanji sensed the tension in the air before he even saw the pirate's hand move; his fights with Zoro, as well as his battles _alongside_ him, had taught him to know that much. The two pirate captains had gone pale when the giant man reached for the blade tucked into his belt and backed away, ready to call out a warning to the others, but Sanji slipped in past them and stopped in front of the large group.

"Easy, no need for it, captain." Sanji held his hands up peaceably and gestured to the meat the new pirate crew carried. "This is a peaceful gathering, and we'd be more than happy to have you join us; I'm sure you wouldn't want this food to go to waste."

The leader stared at him with piercing black eyes, and he couldn't help the shiver that ran down his spine. He didn't understand him, or worse, he had misunderstood him. Had he acted too thoughtlessly by putting himself in the middle of this conflict?

The man removed his hat slowly, tucking it under his belt alongside the sword, and he turned around to grab the carcass of the animal they had brought with them. Then, with his bare hands, he tore a hole into its side and ripped the heart out of the chest cavity, showering the boardwalk with blood. Sanji didn't look down at the splatter he knew would be at his feet.

The captain turned back to him, and he began to understand just why the other pirates had looked so frightened. His face was a harsh mask of paint and blood, with dark, charcoal smudges outlining his darker eyes. There was something about the way he loomed over Sanji that was menacing, even if he wasn't holding a bloody heart in his hands.

Sanji frowned. There had to be a way to communicate with them. Covering his ears, he shook his head furiously and pointed at the man's mouth. "I don't understand. Does one of your men speak the Common?"

One of his hands drifted up to his throat and he twirled two fingers before his mouth, indicating speech. "_Fanhver douz kan hva Parlar_?"

He didn't realize that he had spoken in his first language until he felt the weight of the group's stares on him. Recognition lit up the man's dark expression, and the pirate captain motioned to one of his men, who immediately moved to stand by his side.

"_Nord_." His low, rough voice stressed the word, and he pointed straight at Sanji as he conferred with his subordinate quickly, leaving the cook to wonder if he was about to lose his head for what he had said. _I really hope they don't have anything against my birth language._

The pirate glanced at his leader before speaking to Sanji.

"You are from Blue-in-North," he said inquiringly, his accent thick but heavily formal.

Sanji couldn't help the grin that spread across his face when he heard his native tongue spoken by someone other than himself for the first time since he was a boy.

"Yes, I am." He gave a nod in the direction of the captain and the rest of the men, still holding their prey up and waiting in the rear. "Are you all from there as well?"

The man shook his head. "I lived there some winters, and the rest can distinguish your tongue just enough to recognize it."

The cook wanted to ask the man about his time in North Blue, and if he remembered traveling the islands he used to call home, but he restrained himself and addressed the current matter at hand.

"What does your crew want here? We have plenty of food to share, and any of the cooks would be happy to prepare your meat."

"The Qohar offers the beast's Soul," he gestured at the heart held in the captain's hands. "Not a one of your Life Bearers has accepted it."

"Life Bearers?" Sanji wrinkled his brow, glancing back at the pirates hovering nearby on the other boardwalks. They were more like 'life takers' than 'life bearers'. "None of these men really qualify as 'bearers of life', to be honest."

"Those who make your foods, they bear the burden of your lives out on the ocean, yes?"

"Oh, you meant the cooks?" He considered the man's words and nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose you could put it that way. Anyhow, if your captain wants to honor us with a gift, we'll definitely accept it."

He held his hands out with a polite grin, already running possible recipes through his mind. He could cook a heart; it wasn't that different from what he did with his food, using up as much of the animal as he could without waste. Pointing at the fire on the main platform, Sanji asked him how they would usually cook the meat.

The leader scowled and shook his head, thrusting the bloody organ into his hands and sharply pointing at his own mouth, eyes flashing dangerously. His crewmate looked impassively at Sanji.

"You misunderstand; the Soul must be consumed before the Life Bearer prepares the flesh."

Oh. _Oh._

He could just back out of this now; he knew his crew was making their way over to back him up, tensed to fight. He didn't have to do this, this revolting, disgusting thing, even if his refusal would just drag everyone into a long, drawn out fight that they really weren't ready for, not right now.

He thought about what Zeff would say, his gruff, scolding tone as he gave him a good upbraiding for even considering the raw meat rife with potential diseases; and then he thought about Zoro, not speaking to him nor criticizing him, just looking at him pityingly for being so weak that he would let his friends fight over a piece of _meat_.

And then he looked up at the captain's eyes, challenging and wild as his hand hovered over the hilt of his blade, and Sanji brought the heart up to his mouth and bit down.

* * *

"What is Sanji doing?"

Usopp watched the interaction unfold on the pier with worry, hoping his friend wasn't about to get himself killed.

"It looks like he's about to get himself killed."

Usopp glared at Franky, who just shrugged and continued eating; their captain hadn't stopped and he wasn't about to let the boy finish off the banquet table alone. Beside him, Nami and Robin chatted over identical desserts, chuckling at the antics of the drunken men trying to earn their attention on the dance floor and failing to notice that a giddy Chopper was making off with their cake.

Zoro rolled his eyes. "If that's what he wants to do, then let him. No skin off my back."

Nami glanced over briefly before waving it off as the usual rivalry between the two men. They fought every chance they got, even in battle. Besides, she thought, there was the matter of finding out what happened to her delicious looking Chiffon cake; the navigator shot a suspicious look at the doctor, who ducked down behind Zoro.

Usopp continued on obliviously.

"You know, you and Sanji have been acting really weird all day. What's going on?"

Zoro ignored the sniper and returned to his bottle. "The shit-cook is always acting weird. Just leave him alone; he can _obviously_ take care of himself."

Chopper looked concerned, or as much as he could manage while his mouth was crammed with a variety of sugared flowers he had stolen off the giant cake in the middle of the table. "Do you think we should go back him up, just in case? Those guys look really scary."

"No, guys; I think he's fine." Usopp sounded relieved as he sank back into his chair. "He's just going to _oh my God, that guy just ripped the dead animal's heart out_ _with his bare hands_."

Zoro glanced up with a frown, and Nami followed his line of sight back to the cook. He was still standing there, gesturing at the feast as though he intended to let those pirates join them. They were violent and hostile, and it didn't even look like they could communicate well with Sanji. _He really doesn't know when to stop, does he?_

"Let's go," she said, and Zoro stood up, dropping his empty sake bottle and scooping his reluctant captain off the table. "Time to rescue Prince Airhead."

They had reached the second platform on the far side of the gathering, and Zoro had a clear view of the pair in the center of it. If he timed his move carefully, he could cut off any attack that was directed at the cook and cut down the pirates' leader in the process. As he reached for his sword, Luffy grabbed his wrist tightly.

"Wait." The captain tilted his head and watched them curiously. "I wanna see what happens."

Nami shook Luffy by the shoulders and snapped at him. "What, are you waiting to see how badly he's going to get beaten? Because that's the only thing I-"

She fell silent, her eyes widening in shock. Behind her, Usopp gagged and looked away.

Sanji was tearing viciously at the slick, dark red heart in his hands, mouth red and panting as he ate it with a methodical pattern. He paused and breathed hard through his nose, a tremor running over his shoulders nearly imperceptibly; anyone who didn't know his mannerisms would have overlooked it completely.

They should have done something to stop this and spare Sanji the ordeal of finishing the whole thing, but none of them could bring themselves to move. Speechless, Nami wondered if Sanji's eyes had always been that blue and bright or if it was just the contrast of the crinsom blood coating his cheeks and face.

There was a dark, hungry look in Sanji's eyes now, and he was no longer shaking as he ripped the flesh apart with his teeth like knives. Only the strange pirate crew's rumbling mutters filled the night underneath the sounds of squelching bites and ravenous chewing, and then the docks fell silent.

He had finished.

The captain looked at him for what seemed like hours, eyes glittering viciously, and then he began to walk away. His men then stepped up, bringing the carcass forth to place it at Sanji's feet. When a couple of the cooks hesitantly tried to approach, they growled and kept them away with a threatening motion at their weapons.

"It's only for him to prepare," Chopper muttered quietly from Zoro's side. "They aren't going to let any of the others touch it."

"Because he ate that thing's heart?" Nami whispered, and the sniper stifled another wretch, groaning lowly as he held his head.

"Would you not talk about it, please?"

Everyone remained motionless, afraid to do or say anything that might upset the strange, rough pirate crew that was making a space for themselves on the port docks. Some of the other pirate captains, however, had an sharp gleam in their eyes, like they had finally figured out a long unsolved puzzle. Nami noticed Luffy's acute gaze on them, expression closed and indiscernible in the flickering firelight, but decided not to ask about it. She didn't want to be the one to break the silence anyway.

Instead, she just soaked in the sight before him; not because she wanted to, but because she knew that she would never forget it.

That image remained etched in her memory: Sanji standing tall and straight-backed against the fire-illuminated sky, jaw and hands dripping with still steaming blood, teeth stained red and bright, and his blue eyes burning like fire.

* * *

The shock of realization that _yes, he was actually doing this _buffered his reaction to the taste and texture of the sinewy meat, and he barely noticed the blood dribbling out of his mouth and down his chin, warm and sticky. He managed to do this a second time before his keen sense of taste kicked in and he almost gagged, throat clenching up in protest. Breathing heavily through his nose, he fought to regain control of himself, and the captain's gaze hardened before him in disapproval. Sanji let his vision clear up and then swallowed hard, feeling the mass slide down his throat slowly.

He didn't know how he was supposed to do this again, and again, until it was all gone, but the man was waiting for him to continue, a hand idly tapping the sword at his side. Sanji had half a mind to just give up and throw himself onto the pirate's blade; anything was preferable than forcing himself to take another bite out of this.

_It's still food, you know...just uncooked. Do you really want this to all go to waste along with that fresh meat they caught?_

He remembered a time when he would have killed (and he had been so close to it too) just for a scrap of an old man's withered, raw meat, when this steaming piece of flesh would have seemed like the most beautiful sight to his sunken eyes. _What would it taste like_, the boy had asked himself, on a barren rock in the middle of the unforgiving ocean, _eaten right off his bones, piece by piece? Would it be dry or tough, or would it just go down nearly flavorless?_

He never learned what the old man's flesh tasted like, thankfully, but in a deep, secret part of him was buried the forbidden question, and though this was no human meat, the raw, full flavor awakened a memory of a feral, starved child's last coherent thoughts, desperate and painful in their honesty. It horrified and thrilled him.

Before he realized what he was doing, Sanji began to eat with actual, urgent hunger, no longer a full grown man struggling over a hunk of raw meat in just another port; he was nine years old and feasting on an old pirate's still steaming heart, his first full meal in months, and it tasted sweet.

Blood coated his arms all the way up to the elbows, where it had dribbled down while he brought the meat to his face over and over, and he felt it smear all over his face, hot and wet and falling onto his chest. His new shirt was definitely ruined, but he would lament that after he returned to the Grand Line, exhausted and troubled.

Right now, he was on a desert island somewhere in the East Blue, with eighty-five days of starvation on him, and he had just eaten his fill, and he was _alive_.

* * *

The Qohar and his pirates had settled in comfortably on the pier, and though no one wanted to come near them, they had somehow returned to what could almost be considered normalcy. At least, they hadn't completely lost their urge to indulge in the evening's festivities. Brook struck up a chord, and then music filled the air again, soothing over the remaining tension easily.

The Straw Hats watched their cook from the table they occupied; only Luffy was still shoveling food into his mouth, albeit at a slowing pace. Usopp couldn't even look at the food on the table, sitting with his back to it as he stared into a glass of water he held in his lap.

Sanji appeared on the edge of their platform, arms laden with several large trays of freshly cooked food, and even had one skillfully balanced on his head; his steps were not slow but deliberate as he crossed the docks. The bloodstained clothes were gone, exchanged for a darker, well-fitted suit that let him blend nearly seamlessly with the night.

He approached the pirates quietly, smoothly sinking to his knees to lay the trays out before the Qohar and his men. The man looked at the food he was presented with and tore a good chunk out of the leg, shoving it at the cook who accepted it and ate it, already knowing that it was safe to eat.

He had Sanji taste-test every single dish, some of them twice just for his own assurance. Usually the cook would take offence at the mere suggestion that he would ever tamper with food, but he knew that to this captain, who couldn't even communicate with any of the pirates on this island, let alone the man he was entrusting with his meal, this was just a means to protect himself and his crew. Washing down the food with a swig of the pirates' rum, he indicated that the test was over.

The Qohar glared at him, and the cook gazed back at him coolly, though he was desperately craving a cigarette by this hour. Then the captain nodded, a cue for the others to help themselves. Sanji backed away with a hidden smile, and he caught the second-in-command's approving look.

"Although you might not realize it, he is pleased."

"Trust me, the pleasure was mine." Sanji wondered if it was just the alcohol or the food that glutted his stomach, but he was feeling so exhausted. Then again, it had been a long day. He sank down next to the man and closed his eyes for a moment. "Where are you from, anyway? We've barely met, and yet I just ate a heart fresh from a giant exotic beast for your captain and shared a full course meal with you."

"My name is Balkos, first mate to our captain Khalashtrogos of the Red Line, and every one of us was born in our Qohar's lands." He took a long drink from the flask in his hand, then offered it to Sanji. The cook took it gratefully and tried to wash away the sweet, coppery taste lingering in his mouth, even after all the other food he had eaten that night.

"I apologize, but beyond that I cannot say."

"It's fine," Sanji said with a smile, holding his hand up in understanding. "Secret of the state, huh?"

Seeing the confusion on the man's face, he quickly backtracked. "It's…um, never mind. I'm Sanji, by the way."

From the other end of the docks, Zoro watched the cook flit around the pirate crew the entire evening, darting back and forth to bring them piles of fresh food and drink when they asked for it. He didn't care if the cook was willing to bend over backwards to please that rabble of pirates; Curlybrow had always had a soft spot for the hungry, especially raggedy men with dangerous temperaments, as he had demonstrated back at the Baratie. But Luffy had trusted Zoro with the crew's safety and lives, and even though he found the cook annoying, he would do anything to protect him. Right now, he was carefully watching the captain, eyes narrowed in suspicion as the fearsome pirate scrutinized Sanji's every movement.

"I don't like this."

"Zoro, it's fine." He glanced down at his captain, slumped tiredly against his shoulder and half-asleep. "Sanji's okay; just relax."

Across the room, the newcomers burst into a cacophony of harsh laughter, and Zoro's blood began to boil. "You don't understand, Luffy; that bastard's looking at him like-"

"He's not gonna leave us." He blinked in surprise and felt the boy's soft chuckle against his side. "Nothing's happening tonight, and in the morning, Sanji will still be ours; trust him."

"It's them I don't trust," Zoro growled but felt much calmer, and he shifted Luffy into a more comfortable position. His captain smiled sleepily and yawned, letting his head fall to the side as he drifted off.

"That's why you're First Mate; because I know you'll take care of him. Just don't lose your head over it..."

The swordsman waited for Luffy's breathing to even out, and then he shrugged his jacket off and laid it across the captain's chest, hoping it would stand against the chill of the night. He settled back against the table, swords propped up safely in the crook of his arm, and kept a quiet vigil over his captain and the crew, but he was unable to shake off a growing sense of foreboding in the back of his mind.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note**: So, this took longer than expected, but I hope you don't mind the break I took for the holidays. It's a funny chapter with a lot more setup! And toilet humor. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it, as always. Thanks for the reviews and for reading this story!

* * *

Franky groaned.

The darkness swallowed his voice up, and the shipwright threw his sheets off, letting them fall God knows where in the empty room. He shuffled into the hallway and growled loudly, catching the attention of no one at all. His grumbling sighs and moans echoed in the long, dark passage, but he noticed a distinct lack of silence at the end of the hall. Dragging himself towards it miserably, he burst into the brilliant light with a howl.

"Franky, quit your bellyaching already; we can hear you. It's not even _that_ early."

Ah, the cook wouldn't understand; he liked to get up at the crack of midnight every day _to cook_. Really. You couldn't make this stuff up. Sanji rolled his eyes and told him to quit exaggerating because it was more like one-thirty-ish, probably.

"Besides, I wasn't the one to wake you." He nodded at the Straw Hats sprawled around the room with a smirk. "Thank these idiots over here."

"_You_." He was sure that his voice conveyed all of the pain and betrayal that had ever been felt by everyone in the world in all time ever. He stomped into the kitchen to join the rest of his crewmates, who simply regarded him with varying expressions of indifference and boredom like they hadn't just ruined his life. Bastards.

"What ungodly hour is this?" he moaned, glaring blearily at the closest of those fiends, who just happened to be the sweet, gentle-hearted little doctor. Chopper blinked at him over his mug of steaming hot chocolate, topped off with whipped cream and chocolate chips. The shipwright paused for a moment and then directed his justified anger at the _next_ fiend, the navigator. Better.

Nami looked completely unimpressed. "With all your creative additions and alterations to your body, I would have expected you to have a timepiece or two installed by now."

She had a point.

Franky scowled at her and raised his finger indignantly. "That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard and I am going to make a note of it. Because it's just that dumb."

"Uh-huh." She gave him a smug, knowing look and tucked her faithful map log and compass into the day pack at her feet. "Get dressed and grab something to eat on the way to the city; we have a long day ahead of us."

"It's still black as sin out there!" He gestured at the inky sky and twinkling stars beyond the portholes in the galley. "How could you do this to me?"

Usopp glanced up sleepily from his cereal bowl, most of his breakfast dripping off the side of his face and onto the table.

"W-we're going to…seize the day, or something," he yawned, letting his head drop back into the bowl. "Carpe…diemph…"

Franky furrowed his brow as he tried to decipher the sniper's gurgling, leaving Robin and Brook to fish him out of his breakfast. "Why is Longnose talking about carp fishing and diadems?"

"Never mind that, get ready!" Nami snapped, shoving several towels and a fresh bar of soap into his hands. "If you keep holding us up, I _will_ make you regret it."

Sanji rushed past them and dropped a new package of toilet paper on top of the stack of towels. "And don't forget to restock; I wasted an hour trying to find the paper today because _someone_-"

He gave Luffy a pointed glare, and the captain shrugged innocently.

"-thought it would be a good idea to use it to line the docks."

Franky raised an eyebrow.

"_All_ of them."

He tilted his head at Luffy and frowned. "Why?"

"I got splinters when I walked barefoot on them."

"You have sandals," the cook groaned, pressing the heel of his palm against his head. "_Anyway_. Franky, your food is on the counter. If anyone needs me, I'll be outside helping the cleanup from yesterday _and_ from Luffy's million-beli idea."

The captain grinned at the cook as he hopped along on one foot while shoving the other foot into his shoe before he dashed for the door. "Love you too, Sanji."

"_Toilet paper_, captain."

"Hahaha, yeah…."

Franky threw his head back and groaned, slumping across the kitchen in search of his food. "Is everyone on this ship insane?"

"Franky, it's not that bad," Brook said, fixing himself up a fresh pot of coffee and offered him some. "Caffeine? I'll put in a shot of cola for you."

"…yes, please." The others could take their stupid judgmental cringing and shove it; the Franky Special _Double-Coup de Wham!_ was goddamned delicious.

(It used to be called _The Triple-Coup_, until Chopper told him he couldn't use caffeine tablets in his drink anymore unless he was aiming to die of a heart attack before he hit thirty-six.)

"You should be glad that you got to wake up at such a lovely hour," the musician continued cheerfully, seemingly unaffected by the long hours of partying and an early rising. "Look, you'll be one of the first to see the sunrise!"

"Yes, thanks for waking me up at _fuck o'clock_ so I can burn my retinas out by staring straight into the horizon at a flaming ball of pain, everyone!"

Armed with his extra bathroom supplies and a steaming mug of coffee, Franky made his way to the showers grimly, wishing that he had stayed in bed today. Nami wasn't joking when she said they had a long day ahead of them; she probably had an itinerary already written up for each of them. And he was probably going to be doing most of the heavy lifting, if she had her way. Well, at least he could shove some of it off on Curly-bro. He just loved suffering for Nami's sake.

Before Franky closed the door, he heard Usopp's confused voice drifting down the hall behind him.

"But he already _has_ sunglasses."

* * *

Luffy had also used up the hand soap, his favorite conditioner (Robin had once mentioned that she liked the smell of it and he had stopped using any other scent), _and_ all of the hot water.

Needless to say, Franky showered in record time.

"I'm impressed. Maybe I should start limiting hot water on the ship."

"_You wouldn't_," he hissed through chattering teeth, knowing full-well that Nami actually would. "For God's sake, have some compassion."

"Tch, that's Sanji's spiel." The navigator grinned smugly from her seat across the table and sipped on a fresh cup of tea while the cook dashed around the room making last minute preparations for the others remaining with the ship today. "Are you really underestimating my capacity for frugality, Franky?"

"I guess I just did." He dropped his head on the table and sighed; Chopper had refused to let him have any more _Double-Coup_, and he was desperately low on caffeine right now. His stomach then gave a loud growl, and he moaned pitifully, unable to bring himself to get up to find something to eat.

"I should have known better than to trust you to eat your food while I was gone." A bento box was set down in front of him, and Sanji's glare was enough to wake him up fully. Every inch of the cook's expression promised pain and death. "Here, so you don't pass out and make me look bad in front of the islanders."

Franky rolled his eyes, though secretly he felt touched that the cook had thought to pack him some food for the trip. This sort of treatment was something usually reserved for the girls. Still, he wasn't about to test Sanji's patience by mentioning it right now. "Yes, mom; like you couldn't do that with your salivating over their women."

(Well, he tried. At least he hadn't said anything about the food.)

"Wh- but you…tch, that means nothing coming from a pervert like you!"

"Ah, you sweet talker."

"You're taking it like a compliment again."

"Boys, enough." Nami stepped in between them and slapped a booklet into their chests, glaring furiously at them as if daring them to say another word. "You're giving me a headache, so grab your fake official passports and let's go."

"_Yes_, _Nami-swan_," Sanji crooned, almost falling over in his attempt to lean into her touch. "_Shall I get you more tea to soothe your pain_, _Swan-swan_?"

"Someone get me arsenic to soothe _my_ pain," Zoro muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes at the cook's antics with his usual disdain, but there was a sharp edge to his tone that suggested an actual intent to hurt. He took Sanji's icy glare in stride, his own expression twisting into a vindictive sneer.

Sanji's reply was needle-thin and brittle. "Oh, believe me. If I thought it could, I would have started lacing your food with it a long time ago."

"Yeah? What happened to 'I'd never tamper with my food', bastard?" Zoro was on his feet and reaching for his swords, and the cook shifted into a fighting stance. "You just gonna give up your morals, Mr. Better-than-Thou?"

"Bite. Me."

There was something troubling the cook and the swordsman, which never boded well on this ship and especially not when they could barely stand to look at each other anymore. Franky had seen the frustrated looks Zoro gave the cook when he thought no one was watching. He and Robin had been worried about Sanji since his erratic behavior began a couple of weeks back, after he holed himself up in the kitchen. And then there was the screaming match last night. Franky shared a look with Robin, resolving to take their crewmates' mind off of things (or maybe even figure out what was going on between them).

"Hey, Curly-bro; let's go out there and have fun for all these suckers." He grinned and threw an arm around Sanji, who looked down at Franky's arm in annoyance. It was an improvement over his angry face, at any rate. "We can make snarky commentary on the weird-ass people and places while we sightsee and I'll even buy you a drink or twenty. Zoro will be so jealous."

("I will not.")

"You really don't have to," Sanji muttered, trying to get out of his embrace before he gave up and sighed. "But thank you."

Franky was sure that a smile was budding on Sanji's face, but if it was he didn't get to see, because in the next instant a pair of trousers slapped him in the face. The cook took that moment of distraction to escape Franky's grasp and hide behind Nami.

"Pants?"

Nami crossed her arms and looked at him expectantly. "What, did you expect to run around the city in your underwear?"

"B-but, my style!"

"We're going incognito, remember?"

"Where's Cognito?" The navigator rolled her eyes at Usopp's question, who smiled slyly and snatched his new hooded jacket from her before retreating a safe distance to get ready.

"She means we need to wear disguises, idiot." Sanji straightened his pea coat and dragged his hands through his hair, tucking it all underneath his cap carefully. "So get dressed and let's go; you're holding us up."

Before anyone could try to sneak a peek at his usually hidden eye, he set the cap at a jaunty angle and effectively obscured their sight of his face.

Everyone groaned. "Will we _ever_ get to see?"

The cook smirked and strolled away, scooping up Nami's bag and his own as he headed toward the door.

"Reply hazy, try again."

"Ah, a mystery eye." Their captain nodded sagely, and Chopper looked up at him in wonderment. "Magic-8 eye, am I going to get extra snacks while Sanji is gone?"

"Don't count on it!"

"Boys, let's go; we're burning daylight!"

The shipwright glanced past Nami at the open door. "You can't even see the sun yet, sis!"

As if to spite him, the first rays of light shone directly on him, and Franky squinted in the pale yellow glow of the sunrise.

"Oh, come _on_!"

* * *

Their crewmates crossed the harbor in the golden morning glow that shimmered off the waters. They had bundled up against the morning chill, but Robin could still see the slight tremble in their backs, and they huddled close together as they walked towards the Dockmaster's office. Nami's vibrant red hair peeked out from underneath her pink hat despite her attempts to hide it. She seemed to be laughing at something the sniper said, as he was leaning close to whisper in her ear.

Franky then joined in, chuckling as he ducked the cook's blow aimed at his head, though his orange cap knocked to the ground and revealed his blue hair underneath. Sanji quickly scrambled to pick it up and shoved it onto his head, and the four glanced around furtively.

Zoro sighed in exasperation. "Those idiots are going to get caught already, and they haven't even made it off the docks."

"They'll be fine," Luffy grinned, resting his head on his arms as he watched them. "They're smarter than they look."

"Wow." Zoro, Brook, and Chopper held identical expressions of pity on their faces as they watched the Booster Shot Four stumble into each other at the end of the docks, oblivious to what was being said about them. "Those poor fools."

"That was a compliment."

Before Zoro could decide whether the effort that explaining to Luffy why maybe their friends wouldn't exactly find his words flattering was worth it, Robin called up at them from the docks. "Gentlemen, we're on cleanup today!"

She had carried several empty baskets down and waited expectantly for them on one of the toilet papered piers.

Chopper slumped over Zoro's shoulder. "We have to clean all that?"

"It is our toilet duty, Chopper," Brook chuckled, and then he doubled over laughing uncontrollably. "Get it? Duty? As in-?"

"We get it, Brook." Zoro gave him a long-suffering look. "Unfortunately."

It didn't take long before they were chasing Luffy around on the docks as he laughed his head off, trailing long streams of toilet paper behind him. He had wrapped one of the pieces around his head and was declaring himself Bandana King. "Look, I'm Zoro!"

"Luffy…" Zoro loomed over the boy with a demonic gloom hanging over him. "For the love of- put your shoes back on, captain!"

"No way! This is too much fun!"

There were plenty of other pirate crews cleaning out on the docks, and most of them were happy to take a break to watch the Straw Hats dash across the white paper paths after Luffy. Some of them were laughing outright, while their captains merely smiled on in amusement.

"They aren't even going to pretend to help, are they?" Zoro grumbled as Luffy managed to dodge him again. "Shit, this kid has developed some sort of sixth sense for me. I can't catch him!"

"Too slow, Santoryu! Ahahaha!"

"You know," Chopper panted as they ran past the Sunny for the third time, "This kind of reminds me of the clouds in Skypiea."

"The Sky Island?" Brook asked from where he was doubled over by the moorings, wiping a hand over his forehead. "Oho, I've worked up a sweat…even though I don't have any skin, ohohoho!"

"Skull joke!" Luffy called out in another peal of laughter, just before he tripped and went tumbling over the edge of the pier. "Whoops."

"_Luffy_!"

A deep chuckle cut them off, and Zoro let his shoulders slump in relief. Captain Thaddeus was holding the boy up by his paper bandana, mere inches from the water. Luffy grinned up at him. "Hello, Captain Tad!"

The older pirate captain returned the smile, pulling him back to the safety of the docks. He had the rest of his crew with him, and they were all armed with lots of extra baskets and bins full of toilet paper. "I see you're hard at work, Captain."

"Yep!" Their captain waved at all the Lathos pirates cheerfully. "Hi, everybody! Thanks for helping us clean!"

"No problem, little bud."

"You too, guys!" Luffy's smile could have lit the entire ship for a month. "I couldn't have done it without my crew!"

Zoro stomped over, nearly driven to exasperation by his captain's antics. "What are you _talking_ about? All we've done so far is chase you across the port for an hour!"

Luffy looked up at him with the smuggest grin he had ever seen.

"Look again, Zoro."

He did, and then scowled at the bare wooden boards of the docks. Not a strand of paper was to be seen anywhere. Brook and Chopper gaped in slack-jawed wonder. "Whoa, what happened?"

"It seems we shouldn't underestimate our captain's wisdom," Robin smiled slyly behind her hand, and Zoro suspected that most of the cleanup was her doing. She caught his gaze and whispered, "I told him to pick up as much as he could while you gave chase; he thought it was a game."

The swordsman shrugged and decided to humor his captain. "What can I say, Luffy? You really outdid yourself this time."

"Yeah, I know. Hey, do you think it's time for lunch?"

Without waiting for an answer (not that they had expected him to), Luffy began to strut off in the direction of the Sunny, still wearing that ridiculous toilet paper around his head; he didn't get further than two steps before he slumped to the ground with a wail. "I got another splinter!"

With a sigh, the Straw Hats headed over to collect their captain off the floor. "Put your shoes on, Luffy."

Zoro was helping him to his feet and steadily ignoring Luffy's complaints about the pain, when the Lathos captain approached them. Something must have passed between them silently because Luffy immediately straightened up and stopped whimpering.

"Captain Luffy, I actually came over for a second reason." Thaddeus' smile was strained, and his crew was watching their surroundings carefully. "Could we talk somewhere private?"

Luffy grinned wide and toothily, showing no sign that he had noticed the tension in the group. "Join us for lunch."

* * *

The ferry ride into the inner cities was actually underground, embedded deep in the rock below the Dockmaster's office, and by the time they reached the boat, Usopp was begging to be taken back to the surface.

"I've suddenly come down with 'I can't go into the mysterious inner island' disease," he whimpered, digging his feet into the rock as a grim-faced Sanji and Franky dragged him towards the boat, a long, double-deck cruising vessel. "Come on, guys; can't we go on to Sabaody instead?"

"Can you pay me back the twenty-three thousand beli I spent on your customs papers and immunization shots?"

The three men stared at her in slack-jawed horror, and Nami simply huffed past them grumpily. "Let's go; this is the last boat in until six."

Franky shook his head. "No wonder you're in such a sour mood, little sis."

"Nami-swan, forgive me!" Sanji trailed after her in tears, dragging his pack (but not hers, of course) over the dirt as he sobbed. "I will do my best to pay back every single beli you have graciously spent on me!"

"With interest."

The cook clasped his hands in front of his chest. " Unfixed and compounded, like always, Nami-swan!"

Usopp and Franky shared a sullen glare, knowing that they would inevitably be included in Sanji's promises. "She's going to bleed us dry."

The navigator stepped out onto the open platform lightly, the click of her heels on the smooth, polished steel echoing in the large, dark cavern. "Hm, I feel better already. Thank you, Sanji-kun."

"And that's not all! I'll even…no! _We_ will, as a whole crew-"

The other two jumped on him and covered his mouth before he could continue digging them into a hole. "Shut _up_, Sanji! We're just barely ahead; don't ruin it."

They didn't know how to take Sanji's muffled response, so they just carried him onto the platform, too scared to let him go in case he wasn't done groveling for Nami. The ticketmaster on the ferry gave them a weird look, raising his eyebrow at the subdued cook bundled up in their spare coats, but he let them pass anyway. Nami smiled sweetly at him and then shot them a glare, leading them to one of the last seats on the boat's second platform.

"What is wrong with you guys?" she muttered, tucking her bag under her feet as she settled into the seat by the window. "We're trying to blend in, remember?"

"Well, _sorry_ that I can't afford to let Cook-bro bury me in more debt." Franky sat down in the seat opposite of her, dropping his own pack onto the little table separating the rows. "Besides, he didn't say anything, did he? I don't think these people even care who we are."

"Would you two shut up?" Usopp hissed, looking shiftily around at the passengers in the other compartments. "They're going to think we're suspicious."

"With the way you're gaping at them, of course they are." Nami moaned, covering her eyes miserably. "I swear, Eyepatch Boy and Mr. Bushido would have been less conspicuous companions."

Franky scoffed. "Please, you haven't seen my undercover moves yet, sis."

Usopp looked up wearily. "Tell me it involves keeping your pants on."

He glanced sidelong at their cook, who had been strangely quiet during the whole exchange. With a yelp, Usopp realized that he was breathing shallowly beneath his puffy-coat cocoon.

"Hey, are you okay?"

He ripped the coats open and Sanji took a huge, oxygen-starved breath. Nami leaned over and tugged the outermost jacket off, shaking her head in frustration at their idiocy. "Did you think that maybe he had to be able to breathe in this thing?"

"Oops?"

"It's okay, Nami-swan," Sanji coughed, wiggling smoothly into her lap. "I don't mind suffocation as long as you're around to resuscitate me." He pursed his lips at her, making kissing sounds. "My body is ready."

She shoved her hand into his face. "Ugh, he's fine."

After their laughter had died down (and after two warnings from the ticketmaster to _please, shut up already_), they had settled in for the ride. Usopp was curled up on the floor with his arms around Sanji's cocoon, still trembling when the boat began to move seemingly out of nowhere. Franky noted that there appeared to be no engine or propeller of any kind, which was odd enough, but there was also no one at the helm steering the ferry as they glided through the water.

"What if this is a ghost ship, and its taking us to its ghost house to eat us all?"

"Usopp, that doesn't even make any sense," Sanji grumbled, wiggling to get out of his warm, comfy prison to no avail. "Why would a ship have a house? And how would it cook us anyway? It has no hands."

"Maybe it uses its ghost powers," Franky wondered, looking out the window at the darkening passage. "Like the ones on Thriller Bark that fed off of our emotions."

"You can't cook emotions, Franky. Believe me, I've tried."

Nami looked at them over the top of her book, the little bookmark she had tucked into it also serving as a back light. "Sometimes I forget how young you really are, Sanji-kun. But then I end up disappointed with myself, so I try not to think about it."

The cook had freed his torso from the bundle of clothes, and he propped himself up on his elbow, giving her his best smoldering stare while Usopp and Franky tried to hold back their laughter. "Will you fall for my boyish charms first, Nami-swan, or is it my seductive maturity that will win you over?"

"If I thought you were serious about pursuing me, I would give you a straight answer," she chuckled, raising her book back up to continue reading.

"You don't think I love you?" Sanji frowned up at her.

"I _know_ you love me." Nami smiled gently and placed her hand on his head, pushing the brim of his hat over his eyes. "But, I think that you love something else more. I think we all do."

Her crewmates gave her a questioning look. "What would that be?"

"I think we're all in love with our dreams, above everything else."

Franky grinned as he leaned back in his seat, as did Usopp. Sanji's expression had softened, and all three of them had a wistful look in their eyes. Nami wouldn't ever admit this, but there was something about the way they just lit up whenever dreams were mentioned, like nothing else in the world mattered, that made her fall just a little more in love with her crew. It was almost intoxicating, and lovelier than all of her treasures. Never in a thousand lifetimes could she have imagined meeting people like them, nor having friends as wonderful and sweet.

The heavy darkness of the caves suddenly lessened, and the four pirates glanced out the wide window to find a strange, bluish glow filling the cabin.

"I knew it; it's ghosts." Usopp slowly edged his way into Sanji's cocoon, burying his head in the hood of his jacket. Nami rolled her eyes and tried to drag him back out.

"It is not, scaredy-cat." She shoved him out into the hallway. "Now go check to see what that is; I'll have a higher chance of surviving if you go first."

"Nami!"

Franky jumped up, furrowing his brow as he pushed pass the bickering pair in the hall. "Out of the way, you two. I don't think it's anything deadly."

The boat gave an abrupt lurch, and they were sent sprawling to the ground.

"What the heck was that?" Usopp was now clinging to Nami nervously, his eyes darting around to the window in their compartment. "Are those stars?"

"We're underground, Usopp." Sanji peered up at the glowing lights with a frown. "Why would there be…oh my God."

He tore himself out of the bundled coats around him and was on his feet with Franky in an instant. "Guys, come outside."

"If you guys get me killed, I'm _so_ going to haunt you all mercilessly."

Nami followed the shipwright and the cook with a roll of her eyes. "We would never let you die without us, Usopp. Now come on."

The sniper ran after her down the narrow hallway, ignoring the stares of the other passengers as they stuck their heads out and wondered what was going on. "That's comforting, Nami. _Thanks_."

"Always here for you, Longnose."

They burst out onto the upper deck, a wide, flat platform with no railing and plenty of edges that one could fall off, but what caught their interest was the tunnel they were traveling.

Nami covered her mouth, eyes wide in awe as she took in the sight before her. The waters of the underground river were shimmering in the inky darkness of the cave, illuminated by several openings in the cave's ceiling. All along the walls of the tunnel were long, curving streams of water, smaller rivers and pools tucked into the rock around them. Some of the streams were full-sized rivers, running alongside the main river and carrying actual sea creatures. Fish swam along the narrower chutes in a gravity-defying display, leaping out at them and then falling back up into the streams on the ceiling.

"The tide reaches up to this tunnel's ceiling," Franky muttered, studying the rocky crags and rivers above them. "That must be why there aren't any ferry trips for another twelve hours."

"But how in the world do they stay up there?" Usopp gaped at the fish swimming overhead, ducking reflexively every time one of them jumped out even though he knew that they couldn't reach him.

"Beats me, but this is crazy stuff right here."

"What _isn't_ crazy on the Grand Line?" Sanji grinned up at the impossible tunnel around them, the lights casting all different hues of blue across his skin. Another lurch shook the boat, and they heard the roar of an approaching drop in the river, the reason they were going faster now. The wet platform offered no purchase for their feet, and Nami felt her ankle fall out from under her on the slipper surface.

"_Oh_."

Nami thought that she would topple over, but then a strong arm wrapped around her shoulders and held her close to one of the platform's support beams. Franky. She leaned into his embrace and felt herself calm down, even while the boat started picking up speed. Usopp let out a yelp from her right, and she could see Sanji crouched next to him, holding him steady as the boat gave a shudder.

"Hold on, guys!"

Franky's shout carried over the growing roar, and then the ferry plunged downward into the riverbend. Cold water splashed over the platform, and they went faster and faster into a curving spiral, before it suddenly straightened out into another long chute. The waters were less choppy now, though they could see the water level rising up to meet the ceiling.

"Sanji!"

The cook had pushed Usopp back towards the columns and edged closer to the bow of the boat, slowly straightening from his crouch while the waves licked at his feet. He reached a tentative hand up to the ceiling as it approached them, and then his fingertips brushed the underbelly of the winding currents, droplets falling down to meet him halfway.

"Are you crazy?" Usopp shouted, desperately clinging to the beam next to Franky and Nami. "What if you get crushed?"

"No, look."

Water pooled around his hand, enveloping a lithe little silverfish that swam around in his grasp blissfully. Sanji cradled the water bubble in his hands carefully, staring at the plain fish in awe and wonderment.

Nami's eyes widened. "It's from East Blue."

Sanji nodded, biting his lip in barely contained excitement. Franky and Usopp cast around, looking at the fish swimming along the currents in hopes of recognizing some of them.

"Some of these fish are from the other Blues, too!"

Sanji threw his head back and laughed, letting the little fish swim back up into the river. "The All Blue is out here! We're so close!"

Nami couldn't stand it any longer. She ran across the slippery platform and threw herself at the cook, wrapping her arms around his neck. Frank and Usopp followed close behind, grinning excitedly as they piled on top of Sanji for a huge hug. Their laughter rang in a joyous echo in the tunnel, and nothing else seemed to matter at the moment but the fact that they were going to find it. They were almost _there_.

The tunnel opened out just then, throwing them into the brilliant light of the day and giving them a clear view of the Inner Cities. They looked up at the towering city above them as the ferry floated gently through the waters of the inner lake, like the uncontrolled roller coaster ride through the underground cave was just a distant memory. The noise of the city rose up to greet them, mingling with all the breathtaking sights of Staithe Wharf's Inner City. Nami smiled up at the shimmering sunlight around them, still squeezing Sanji gently.

"Oh, it's beautiful."

(She wasn't only talking about the city. Franky and Usopp seemed to catch her meaning and smiled.)


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note:** I just want to thank everyone who's followed this story so far, as well as everyone who reviewed, too. I'm just really happy that you've enjoyed this as much as I have, so I give you a new chapter and hope you enjoy it. After this, things will definitely come to a head, just not in the way you might think.

* * *

Morning clung to the sky above the Inner Cities in a warm cheery light, breaking through the heavy green foliage and between the tall, spiraling buildings on each of the island's five major cities, giving the whole place a golden, dreamlike air. Even the forbidden outer forests looked ethereal in the glow, a contrast of dark and light along the edges of the lake. Up above the floating cities, strange, thin lines ran across the sky in a seemingly random pattern, and every once in a while they reflected the sunlight in short flashes as they swayed in the wind.

"What are those?" Usopp wondered aloud as he studied the network of cables, sitting beside Sanji on the edge of the platform as their boat cut smoothly through the water. "They kinda look like cables or something."

"That is the old transport system," the ticketmaster sighed from behind them, trying to keep the other passengers inside. "It was used for cargo and travel across different points on the island, until the virus wiped out access to the outer island."

"Would be cool to see them in use." Usopp muttered, looking into the forest where the lines disappeared into the canopy.

"It would be 'cool' if you all came back inside."

"Whoa! Check that out!" Franky pointed across the water at the first city's skyline where skyscrapers rose up like giants from the marketplace, reflecting the sky off of their smooth, sleek walls. "Places to throw my money away!"

All of the passengers burst out of the boat now, crowding onto the ferry's two platforms to gape at the city in gleeful excitement, leaving the ticketmaster standing helplessly at the door. "Why won't you people _listen_? The rules are here to keep you _safe_!"

Nami gave him a sympathetic look. "Sorry, but we're _pirates_. We don't do well with rules."

She joined her crewmates at the bow of the boat, dangling her legs over the edge with Usopp while Franky and Sanji pointed out the different places they would have to visit before they left. With five different cities to see, they were definitely going to have a busy day.

Plata held the main marketplace on the island, with hundreds of different vendors and shops lining the streets and seven full-sized shopping centers spread out across the city; of course it would be the first stop for the tourists. After they had fished a couple of the passengers out of the lake ("They should really install a railing on this thing."), the ferry docked on the small platform below the city's entrance and they all disembarked post-haste, eager to get into the shopping center of the island. Unfortunately, the islanders had planned their city out exceedingly well.

Nami had to fight through the tourist trap shop set up at the entrance of the marketplace, the so-called "Holiday Haven Gift Shop (and other assorted chintzy prizes)", and by the time she got out of _that_ particular black hole, her crewmates were gone.

"Great."

At least she still had her money. Heaving a long-suffering sigh, the navigator made her way through the crowded markets, looking over the list of supplies they needed to pick up and the list of useless things that her crewmates _wanted_ to pick up. Really, did they think she was swimming in beli? Nami grinned wryly.

(Even if she did have enough to dive into, that was so unsanitary and disgusting. Who in their right mind would do that?)

Taking a moment to orient herself, she mapped out the city's layout in her mind and chose a winding street to follow, deciding that she could search for the others as she shopped. They only had a limited time in the city, and she wanted to make the most of it.

On the other side of the island city, Franky was finishing off his breakfast bento as he walked through the biggest mall he could have ever imagined. After he plowed his way through what the locals called "The Black Hole", he had found himself out here, surrounded by more shops and stores than he had believed possible, and they were all calling his name. One in particular caught his eye.

"What the heck is a 'primation process'? And why does that thing have a-? Ohhh..."

Once Usopp's desire to explore the markets overcame his fear of being alone in the inner cities, he took to the shopping centers like a fish to water. Almost like he had an innate sense for the place, the sniper quickly found the best places for the ammunition supplies he needed so desperately at this point, and then he found _the_ ammunition place.

No, really; it was called The Ammunition Place.

Usopp was amazed at the sheer diversity of long-range weapons that were contained within the store. From beautiful hand-drawn longbows to an amazing array of slingshot-type weapons like his own, the walls were covered from top to bottom, and the center of the store had aisles and aisles of arrows, shells, cartridges, and projectiles, as well as others supplies related to the care and use of those weapons.

"Is this Sniper Heaven?"

"That would actually be the unofficial title of this store, young man."

Usopp whirled around and screamed, and the man pointing a rifle at his face screamed as well, catching the attention of the other shoppers. Screams continued to burst forth out of the store, to the shock and horror of innocent mall-goers everywhere in the shopping center.

XXXX

Nami met Franky on the waterfront in Kioji, where he was testing the weights of varying ship anchors and haggling with the vendors over the price on timber pieces and planks.

"You're a complete idiot if you think I'm going to pay full price for this; it isn't even Adam wood!"

The navigator smiled as he headed toward her with a good haul of the wood, at half-price, too. She had taught him well.

"Well done, my pupil."

"I learned from the best," he smirked, setting his supplies down on the docks next to her, and they sat down to compare stories. He had made his way through Plata's sharp-cornered streets and throughways on foot, picking up a few new tool sets that he and Usopp had been looking for before he found himself in the boatyard district on the second city-island and began to buy the Sunny a few things he needed for repairs. "But my favorite place is definitely Sky Mall. They have everything under the sun."

"I hope you didn't spend all your money there."

He laughed at her disapproving glare. "Don't worry, I have enough to treat you to lunch!"

"You're completely irresponsible; I'm surprised I still give you an allowance."

Nami sighed and looked out at the island lake, where several smaller boats ferried people across to the other Inner Cities. They still had a lot of ground to cover, and the sun was climbing higher overhead.

"I wonder where the others are…"

Franky stretched out on the docks and yawned, closing his eyes against the midday sunlight. "I dunno, Usopp's probably hiding and Sanji's probably cooking. They're fine."

He looked at the bags sitting next to her, overflowing with supplies and other purchases. "Where have you been, by the way? I lost you at the Black Hole and no one knew where you had gone."

"Cartography shops. These are high-quality stores, once you get past the cheap gift shop at the entrance." Nami picked up one of her bags and showed him the new mapmaking supplies she had found. It looked like all the usual, with some beautiful new inks and pens for her set back on the Sunny, but then something else caught his eye.

"What's this?"

Nami gleefully pulled out the folder tucked into her purse, showing him what looked to be the official deed to…

"Worldline Entertainment and Resorts. You can't be serious. Where did you get this?"

"I found a casino."

"And?"

Nami's catlike smile widened, and she practically purred, "I won it."

"…you are really starting to scare me with that smile of yours."

Nami cackled all the way back through the marketplace, and the shipwright was sure that he wasn't the only one who found the gleam in her eyes terrifying.

* * *

"You are an amazing shot, my boy."

Usopp apologized for the hundredth time, wiping at the yolky mess dripping off the store manager's face with a trembling hand. "I really, _really_ didn't mean to shoot you in the face with a rotten egg, sir."

The man laughed and waved him off. "Boy, I pointed what you believed to be a loaded rifle, straight into your face. I'm surprised I still have my head on my neck."

"Sorry, sorry."

Mr. Canche, owner of the Ammunition Place (also known as Sniper Heaven by the regulars), shook his head and said, "I've never seen such a precise, over-the-shoulder _headshot_. If that had been any other kind of projectile…"

The sniper fidgeted nervously with the dirty handkerchief in his hands. "If I had wanted to, I could have gone straight for the phoenix shell instead of the eggbomb."

Canche gave him a questioningly look. "What does the phoenix shell do?"

"It bursts into flames of about one thousand degrees."

His jaw dropped. "_What_?"

"Good thing I grabbed the right pellet, huh?" Usopp gave him a beatific smile and began to peruse the bins lining the front counter, wondering if they carried anything similar to his stink bombs. "By the way, do you always greet potential customers with a weapon to their face?"

Mr. Canche looked sheepish, and he glanced at the rifle laid out on the countertop. "I apologize; I was simply balancing the scope on this new shipment we got this morning, and I heard your question while I was looking through the lens."

The sniper folded his arms across his chest. "And you forgot you were holding a dangerous weapon when you decided to answer me."

"It's not loaded, and the lock is on, if that helps!"

"I almost died of a heart attack!"

The man grinned and moved the rifle onto its stand behind the counter, where several more cases waiting to be opened rested on the floor. "You act like you've never stared down the end of a gun barrel."

Usopp cringed. "Is that something you do on a regular basis, because at this point I wouldn't be surprised."

With a booming laugh, Canche headed into the backroom. "Take a look around, son! I'll be right back after washing up. We'll talk gun caliber and exit wounds next."

Usopp considered leaving right there and then, but he had to admit that those guns looked incredible and beautiful in their own way (terrifying and horrifically dangerous, yes, but still amazing). He looked down at the wide glass display of smaller guns and rifles for a while, thinking that there was no way they would ever be as good as his Kabuto, even with all of their fancy attachments and add-ons. Nothing beat a good old slingshot and a sharp eye in the hands of a good sniper.

When Canche returned with a clean shirt and some boxes of fresh ammunition, he found Usopp staring at the displays on the far wall, frowning at a certain piece he had been holding on to for a while.

"Ah, I see you've found something to suit your tastes?"

Usopp glanced up and shook his head with a polite grin. "No, sorry. I was just remembering something."

The shop manager nodded eagerly and began to lead him back to the main display. "Forgive my mistake, you probably want to look at the finer pieces in the store, right? Those silly things couldn't possibly interest you."

Usopp's gaze kept drifting to the back wall. "I actually like those silly things. My dad used to own one."

"Did I say silly? I meant to say sensible. Wonderful. _Astounding_."

Ignoring the man's increasingly manic backpedaling, Usopp stuffed his hands into his pockets and worried at his lip; his foot was tapping a nervous beat on the clean hardwood flooring.

"D'you think…that maybe I could hold it, just a moment?"

Mr. Canche smiled; the boy looked like he had just been given an early Christmas present. He held the small flintlock pistol with such tenderness, even though earlier he had been flinching at the sight of the guns. A soft, nostalgic smile graced his face, and he ran his fingers down its side slowly.

"My father left us, my mom and I, when I was just a kid. This was all I had left of him."

"What happened to him?" Canche looked concerned, and Usopp didn't blame him. He probably wasn't expecting to hear someone's sob story when he opened up his store this morning.

Usopp shrugged. "He became a pirate. I haven't seen him since."

"And the gun?"

"Well…my mother got really sick after he left. We didn't have much even when he was around, so when there was nothing left, I sold the gun for her medicine."

He still remembered the look on his mother's face when he brought her the medicine from the clinic; even back then she had probably realized what he had done. Her bitter tears had stung a lot, but he would have done it all over again, given the chance. A seven-year-old didn't have many ways to get his hands on beli, not as much as she had needed. After she died, he threw the rest of the money into the cove on the north side of the island (that had been particularly stupid, but Usopp never claimed to be a bright seven-year-old). He had gotten by, at least physically and healthwise.

"Son, you need to try this gun out."

"This isn't a metaphor for 'you need to try getting _shot_ by it', is it?"

Canche chuckled. "Just a test run. Try it out along the firing range over there and see what you think."

"I've never fired one of these things before; I'll shoot my nose off."

"And what a pity it would be to lose such a fine nose, but I'll help you out and pre-load it first. All you have to do is aim and fire."

Usopp pouted at the nose comment, but he let the man set him up at the very end of the range, taking the gun from his hands and testing out its weight. It was so different and just _weird_; there wasn't any band to load and pull back like his slingshot. "I am not responsible for any property damage and or bodily harm, to you or anyone else in this place."

"Of course not…wait, what?"

He fired the first round into the target, wincing at the feeling of recoil in his hands. "It's…different."

Canche grinned at him, pointing toward the hole in the target. It had barely clipped the drawn figure's foot. "Not bad for a beginner, son!"

"A beginner?"

Usopp narrowed his eyes and fired again, hitting the target's arm this time. A third shot missed the board entirely. "Curse this blasted thing's recoil!"

The store's other employees and shoppers had begun to edge closer, curiously watching the boy's frustrated attempts to hit the mark. Usopp ignored them all, focusing solely on the gun in his hand. He breathed out slowly and closed his eyes. "_Hit the mark_."

The sixth shot clanged against the target's torso, to Mr. Canche's delight, but he didn't stop there. Snatching up the extra rounds, he walked down the firing range, loading the gun as he had seen the shop owner do it, and Usopp started firing at the other target boards with a frightening accuracy, hitting each and every one of them without fail. He stopped at the last, furthest target and shot his last round into the figure's head, leaving a scorching black mark on the white board.

The store had gone very still and quiet, Usopp's shot still ringing in the silence.

He rubbed his wrist slowly and held the empty gun out to the manager. "Um, I didn't mean to get carried away."

Mr. Canche gave him a long, hard look. "Keep it."

"What?" Usopp grinned nervously and shook his head, trying to hand the gun back to the store owner. "Oh, no. Sorry, I don't have any money to spare."

"Who said I would accept any money from you?"

"…no-no-no-no-no, I can't. You can't." Usopp looked at the man with a confused frown, clutching the gun to his chest. "Are you okay?"

"I had already decided that I was going to give it to you, but now I'm certain of it. It's yours."

"You can't just hand out guns to complete strangers because you feel like it. How do you make any money?"

"I charge obscenely high prices for the ammunition, son. You have to pay an arm and a leg for some of these supplies." Canche laughed and threw his arm around Usopp's shoulders, and everyone in the store joined in.

"No, really. I had some guy pay with an arm and a leg one time."

Usopp sighed wearily. "I don't know why I expected anything else from this story."

"He bought himself a good pair of rifles with that…I believe he used them to replace the arm and leg he gave up."

"You mean there's a guy out there using two huge weapons as his _prosthetic limbs_?" Usopp looked horrified, but then he remembered Franky's wide array of weapons and armory. "Wait, that's almost normal here on the Grand Line, isn't it?"

"Boy, when you grow up on the Grand Line, normal just doesn't cut it anymore."

"I see."

Usopp departed from the Ammunition Place with a bag full of new supplies for his arsenal, a repair kit and case, and the flintlock pistol, all tucked safely into his pack. He smiled and waved at Mr. Canche, thanking him for his generosity; as strange as his trip had been, Usopp wanted to come back to the shop again and talk with the man about the care and love he seemed to have for his pieces, which until now Usopp had simply thought of as weapons. When he met his father again, he planned on matching him in skill and knowledge, and that crazy old store owner had given him a good start. Grinning to himself, he left City Mall and stepped out onto the busy street, leaving behind the strange weapons shop.

"That was one of your finer pieces, sir."

"I know, Talis."

His assistant eyed him questioningly, looking away from the boy as he walked away. Her brow furrowed. "Why?"

"That boy's as sharp as a certain other sniper I've had the pleasure of having in my shop, and If I didn't know better, I'd say they were related. You don't come across talent like that very often."

"True, but you didn't give Yasopp this one, even though he begged to buy it out of nostalgia. Would have given you a hefty sum, too."

Mr. Canche chuckled and wiped down the rifle he was cleaning, setting it back up on its display on the wall. "Are you kidding me? He and his crew nearly trashed my place back then, and they got themselves kicked off Staithe in less than twenty minutes. Crazy bunch of hooligans."

"Besides, I actually like this boy…" He and Talis glanced over the row of his defeated targets lining the firing range, each with a perfect mark in the center. "Even the Sogeking would kill to have this kid's marksmanship."

* * *

Franky and Nami found them on Geone, the third Inner Island, amidst the somber, ancient beauty of the original Staithe. They were on the stone steps in front of the giant libraries in the city's center; Sanji was perched on a huge sack of supplies and food, his nose buried in a book, and Usopp sat with his back against a smaller pack, playing with one of his smaller slingshot designs.

"There you are!" They glanced up as Franky and Nami approached, carrying their own heavy packs tiredly. "We've been looking everywhere for you."

"I walked all the way up to the Sky Mall Observatory and paid ten beli to look through their spotting scope, and they only gave me five minutes at a time." Franky dropped his pack and sat down heavily next to Usopp, who just looked at him with a serene expression. "Do you know how many flights of stairs that place has? I needed a breathing mask just to walk around on the viewing platform."

"Because the air was so thin?" the sniper asked lightly, turning back to his prototype.

"No, because my lungs gave out and I needed oxygen. That oxygen tank cost me five hundred beli."

Nami stepped over her crewmates and peered at the book that Sanji was reading. "What book's got you so preoccupied, Sanji-kun?"

"The new edition of _Sailorette's A Girls_, _Uncensored and Wild_."

He grinned up at the look of disgust on the navigator's face. "Kidding, Nami-swan. It's one of the unabridged histories on the Grand Line's minor islands. Did you know that there is an entire island chain off the North Calm Belt that was vanished into the ocean in a single day? It's rumored to be the lost Atlantis, though the sea monsters kinda keep everyone away."

Sanji gestured at another two books on his lap, thick, dusty tomes with yellowing pages. "This one's on the natural sea currents along the Line, I have a couple of sea charts and old maps, and the bookshop keeper helped me find a few histories for Robin-chan."

She glanced at the pile of books next to him, and she realized that he must have spent most of his personal money on books and research. He was eagerly scanning the maps, eyes shining brightly as he pointed out various theoretical sites of the All Blue, citing more books and sea journals than she could keep up with.

"I'm not good with maps and stuff like this, and I could really use your help, Nami-swan." He looked up at her with such a hopeful expression, and Nami felt her heart warm at the timidness behind his smile. He really was such a little kid.

"Sanji-kun, I'll help you make as many maps as it takes to find it." She squeezed his shoulder tenderly and smiled. "I promise."

"We'll all help you in whatever we can, Cook-bro."

Franky and Usopp grinned down at him from over the packs, and Sanji blushed to the roots of his hair. He rubbed the back of his neck and muttered, "Thanks, guys…now can you please stop looking at me like that? It's so mushy and touchy-feely."

Once they had managed to get their laughter under control, the four Straw Hats decided to make their way to Heathers, the south-most island city on the lake, to grab an early dinner in the city's famed restaurant district before heading back to the ferry for the evening. At least, they were trying to, if they didn't have to stop every few seconds to rescue their cook from yet another accident. Sanji was mumbling to himself as he read the time-worn pages of another of his new purchases, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he read, and the many dangers of walking distractedly through the busy streets were lost on him.

"Fishman Island is the antipodes to Reverse Mountain, where the oceans' currents also meet; could that be another possible site?"

Franky steered the cook around an open ditch on the side road and kept him from walking straight into one of the unlit street lamps. "Before you break your face on Geone's architecture, maybe you could leave the research off for later?"

"I'm sorry, guys." He closed the book and hugged it to his chest, to their amusement. "But it's just so close, and I can't afford to go on blind anymore."

"I agree; that last pole nearly took your head off." Usopp snatched the book away and stuffed it into his bag. "Come on, we can help with your research when we get back to the Sunny."

He acquiesced reluctantly, but when their stomachs began grumbling in unison the cook nearly carried them single-handedly across the bridge into the restaurant district, berating himself for failing in his duty as the crew's mother figure all the way.

"Sanji, you're a cook."

"That too."

After a few minutes of his intense scrutiny and evaluation, they chose an elegant, quiet lounge that opened out over the lake, where they settled down to unwind after a long day's excursion. A gentle breeze carried over the waters ruffled the soft, burgundy canopy that covered the balcony, but even outside the cool air didn't bother them. The tiled floor seemed to have been built with some sort of heating system, and it rose up from the ground pleasantly enough that they had removed their outer layers (though Franky was upset that he did _not_ get to remove his pants).

Franky and Sanji had moved to the bar area to choose out some drinks while they waited for their order, and the shipwright noticed Sanji counting out his spare beli.

"Taking some back for the ship's stores?"

"Yeah, we're kind of dry right now; it's a disgrace."

Franky chuckled, taking a sip from the alcohol that the cook was sampling. "Hey Zoro-bro would love this one."

He stiffened and looked away. "I…yeah, I guess."

"…do you want to tell me what's been going on between you two?"

"Not really."

They sat in an awkward silence while the barkeep wiped across the counter with a wet cloth before moving on down to the other end to attend a new customer. Franky let his gaze glide over the countless labels on the alcohol lining the wall behind the counter, and then Sanji shifted beside him nervously.

"Franky, do you…do you think I was too harsh with him?"

He looked down at the top of Sanji's red cap; even in the warm heated air, his shoulders were trembling. No, that wasn't it. It had nothing to do with the cool evening.

"I mean I…I've said some really awful, shitty things, and I'm such an awful, shitty person-"

"What, you don't think he can't handle what you said?" Franky scowled at the barkeep, his eyes warning the man to keep moving and mind his own business. "Sanji, I heard what he said to you, and that was completely uncalled for. Yes, even last night."

Sanji seemed to wilt in his seat, and the tips of his ears were burning red, but Franky knew he had to say it. Cook-bro couldn't keep thinking these terrible things about himself; it wasn't healthy, and it wasn't like him. He deserved to be as happy as the others were.

"Does everyone know?"

Franky grabbed his shoulders and forced him to turn around. "Curly-bro, I'm going to tell you something, and I want you to really listen to me. It doesn't matter who knows what or when the stories were sold to the press. You two are friends; you're comrades. Fighting with each other…what does that accomplish? Just talk to him. He'll understand."

Sanji averted his gaze and glanced at the nearly untouched glass on the countertop with an unreadable expression. "I'm afraid."

Before Franky could say anything, the others called out to them from the balcony.

"Guys, food's here!"

He cursed the server's bad timing and tried to hold the cook back so they could talk a little longer, but Sanji had already started heading back to the table. Resigned, he swallowed down the rest of the sake and followed him out to the balcony.

Dinner was a cheery affair, and they played catch-up with each other, exchanging accounts of their day out on the Inner Cities, but Sanji remained unusually quiet throughout the meal. He slipped the tangerines from his salad onto Nami's plate and let Usopp help himself to the sweetened almonds and spinach leaves, and when they were done he was still picking listlessly at his own food. Franky frowned; what had happened to the enthusiastic Sanji that had waxed poetic about his dream of finding the All Blue? The young man who looked like he could conquer the world by sheer will alone?

And then a light clicked on in his head.

Franky stood up and excused himself quietly, leaving his confused crewmates behind without explanation. He quickly found what he was looking for, the source of the lounge's soft, classy music. The pianist looked skeptical at first, but Franky didn't care as long as he played along for the evening.

"Evening, gentlefolks. Er, sorry to interrupt your usual fare, but tonight a certain group of dreamers is gonna steal the show."

Nami glared at him over her glass of wine. "I'm giving him ten seconds to get down from there."

"No, wait. I wanna see where he's going with this." Usopp grinned, leaning forward in his seat.

The shipwright gave them a knowing wink and tapped his foot along to the piano's easy tune, and suddenly they knew what he was going to do.

_"Life out here can get you down, and sometimes you think you've lost your way…"_

Nami sat up straight. "Get him down from there."

_"And I know it's easy to take it slow, when every day is the very last day…"_

He held his hand out to Sanji, who smiled sheepishly at everyone in the room and sank down in his seat.

_"Come on, Cook-bro, you don't have time to mess around, when you're going to where you've found-"_

Nami growled. "If he thinks he's dragging us into some half-baked musical number, he's got another thing coming."

She found herself sitting at an empty table, and when she next glanced up at the stage, Sanji was hesitantly climbing up, with some encouraging nods from Franky and Usopp, and Nami couldn't help but smile when he spoke.

"_People will say I'm crazy,"_ he grinned, and Franky nudged him gently into the spotlight. _"That I'm only chasing a fairytale_."

_"Tch, on the impossible sea of dreams, how can you possibly fail?"_

His eyes lit up when Nami stood up and walked across the stage towards him, blushing furiously as everyone's stares fell on her. So much for laying low. But as the band struck up to match the pianist's melody, and Franky belted out a fine chorus about finding the All Blue (seeing as he had just made it up on the spot), Nami knew that it was worth it just to see the look on Sanji's face as he sang about his dream, and soon enough Usopp and Nami had joined in with their own dreams, easily forgetting the embarrassment and stage fright that should have kept them back.

_"Of course, the storms on the sea are rough and cruel, and I've also had my share."_ Sanji sighed into the microphone, chuckling as Usopp and Franky pretended to swoon. _"But I've found a crew rarer than any jewel, and we're almost there."_

They could have kept singing and dancing the whole night, but somewhere along the second stanza, the shrill whistle of the ferry's last call cut through their merriment, and the Straw Hats jumped down and tore out of the restaurant, shouting out an apology to the restaurant's clientele.

"The Foolish Dreamers, everyone!" Franky yelled over his shoulder, bringing up the rear with Nami's and Usopp's combined packs. "Thank you for having us!"

The sniper glanced back worriedly, helping Sanji carry the timber as they ran through Heathers' winding streets. "I think I left my money at the table, guys."

"It's okay, I forgot to pay anyway!" Franky laughed, and soon they were howling with laughter down the streets, singing the chorus to their song as they barely (just barely) made it onto the ferry before it departed.

"We are the biggest, craziest dorks ever!" Nami giggled between pants, leaning heavily on Sanji's arm after dropping her burden onto the platform. "We can't even sing!"

"You know they loved us anyway," Usopp coughed, drinking down half the water in his bottle in one gulp. "We had fun, at least."

"I love you guys so much!" Sanji chuckled, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. He sank down on the edge of the platform and grinned up at Franky, giving him a look that said _thank you_. Franky knew it wasn't much, but he wanted to show Sanji that whether it was singing in front of a fancy restaurant or finding a fairytale ocean, or talking with Zoro, he would be able to do anything he put his mind to.

"We love you too, Cook-bro."

Usopp plopped down next to them with Nami, and maybe they were a little tipsy and more than too enthusiastic, but they broke out into another round for the ride home.

_"Even on the rolling seas,_

_My friends and I will make it through._

_Go and laugh, say what you please._

_I'm almost there, I'm almost there._

_This is the crew of the foolish dreams,_

_Onward to the Great All Blue!"_

* * *

Luffy tore into the steaming hot sea king steak on his plate, courtesy of the Lathos' cook Mikolo, and he said that if he didn't already have a crew of his own he would have invited Mikolo to join them on the Sunny. The brown-haired pirate laughed and told him to stop being such a flatterer.

"You already have your own Sanji-san on your crew, and he's one of the finest cooks I've ever had the pleasure of meeting."

The Straw Hats captain shrugged and continued eating. "I'm a greedy person; more is better."

Captain Thaddeus chuckled. "Trying to make off with my cook, captain? I'd make you walk the plank for that if I didn't know that you're a Hammer."

"Hahaha, I can't even take a bath without half-drowning before someone comes to fish me out." Luffy grinned and threw his arm around Zoro, who ended up spilling half of his drink into Brook's plate. "But I _am_ lucky to have Sanji, and the rest of my crew, who usually end up with _that_ job. You're right; they're enough."

Thaddeus nodded thoughtfully. "It's easy to forget something so important. You're a good captain who watches out for his crew, and that's why I wanted to talk to you today. About your cook."

Robin glanced up from her own plate, catching her crewmates' gazes, but Luffy just nodded without concern. "Is there a problem with Cook-san?" she asked, setting her spoon down into the clear consommé in her bowl and giving Thaddeus a questioning frown.

"Yeah, there's something going on with the other pirates on this port."

She looked at her captain in surprise, realizing that she had not been the only one to notice some of the pirate groups watching them with a calculating, suspicious look.

"That pirate your cook befriended is a dangerous man, but a powerful one." Thaddeus nodded at his first mate, and the man brought him a worn map, which he spread out before the Straw Hats. "Do you see these white areas on the charts?"

The map he showed them was a careful depiction of the Red Line, all around to the other end of the world. Most of the land on the continent was shaded in black, though along the Grand Line and the many islands in the other Blues were in various other colors, and there was a distinct lack of color around the area where the Red Line intersected the Grand Line.

"Those areas are where he doesn't have control or an alliance with the nation on the map."

Brook frowned in confusion. "But that means that all of this…"

"Belongs to him, in one way or another. Either through conquest or treaty, he spreads his influence as he pleases."

"Who is this bastard anyway?" Zoro growled, leaning forward to look at the map. "And what is he after?"

"Khalashtrogos of the Red Line, the last living sovereign of his home country of Ul-Ezeabaqui. They are a bloodthirsty, wild band of people, though usually they stay to their land-bound areas. If he's come out to sea it means he's after new conquests."

"But what do they want?" Chopper whimpered, quivering behind Robin tearfully. The young woman patted his head gently and pulled him closer. "What's he gonna do to Sanji?"

"With your crew…with your cook, probably nothing. Last night was surely just a little bit of amusement and distraction. Seeing as you are just another group of pirates passing along near his territory, he'll just let you go on your way."

"The other crews probably don't see it that way." Robin pointed out, reminding them of the way Khalashtrogos' men had monopolized all of Sanji's time last night. "If they even think that there may be an agreement between us and this man, they could say they're justified in retaliating. An alliance with a man that powerful would be invaluable."

"You mean they would attack us because Curly-cook served them their own _food_?" Zoro looked like he would need a lot more alcohol in order to process all of this, and she didn't blame him. It was a ridiculous yet terrifying thing to consider.

"I'm not saying they will, but we should be prepared for anything. Men have gone to war for lesser reasons over the course of history." Robin felt weary with the knowledge she had acquired, but even now they could still play it safe and avoid a major conflict. The thing about the past was that everything was obvious in hindsight. _They say it's twenty-twenty, after all._

Luffy's dark eyes glittered with something dangerous, though his mouth was still smiling.

"Whatever the next few days and weeks bring, we'll handle it. I don't want to bring you into this, Thaddeus."

The captain of the Lathos pirates blinked in surprise at being addressed by his proper name, but then he smiled warmly at Luffy's concern. "I would be honored if you would have me and my crew at your side, whatever the storm brings."

Luffy grinned wider and laughed, sealing the agreement between their two groups, though Robin still felt uneasy about this whole thing. Had their Cook-san dragged them into something that they couldn't handle?

* * *

They waited on the outskirts of the feast that evening, keeping an eye out for their friends' return from the city. None of the other pirate groups had acted out of the ordinary, but Robin could still easily tell which ones they would need to look out for. She made a mental note to keep her crew as far away as possible from them and hoped that it would be enough.

Khalashtrogos ignored them for the most part, seemingly uninterested once the other pirate crews had started sharing in their banquet, hoping to get on the man's good side. His men tore into the food like animals, and he watched the festivities continue on with a blank expression. She wondered if this man was really as vicious and bloodthirsty as he was rumored to be, but then their eyes met for a split second, and Robin felt a chill run down her spine.

"Hey, are you okay?" Brook sat down beside her and set his violin down on the bench next to her. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I-I'm fine." She sighed and glanced at her captain and the others, who were pretending that they weren't still thinking about the conversation with Captain Thaddeus earlier. "I just hope the others got back alright."

They shouldn't have worried. The Booster Shot Four came down the docks in a gleeful, noisy frenzy, leading a group of pirates out from the inner island in a spirited version of "Sweet Home Alabasta".

Franky's loud, powerful voice rang out across the water, and the four of them looked positively ecstatic to see them.

(And maybe a little inebriated).

"_Oiiiii, captain_!"

Luffy smiled in bemusement as the rest of the pirates glanced over at the approaching group, their own celebrations momentarily forgotten.

"Listen, _listen_, everyone!"

"The Foolish Dreamers are in the house!" The shipwright mimicked holding a microphone in his hand and gave a great yell. "Ow! Let's get crazy!"

He switched to a new song, stomping out a thumping, crashing beat as he went along, and then Sanji burst forward, leading the group in a wild, rollicking dance. Nami and Usopp waved at them from within the rowdy group of pirates that accompanied them, and were those his own trousers that the shipwright was waving around?

"They are completely smashed," Zoro said in a reverent, admiring voice. "My God, I've never seen such a beautiful, ridiculous sight."

Brook sniffled, wiping at his eyes with a crumpled napkin off the table. "Franky has such a marvelous vocal compass; I think I'm going to cry."

"As irresponsible as it is to drink heavily without a designated sober buddy, I guess it is kind of funny." Chopper giggled, planning out the hangover medication that they were likely to need in the morning. "But they are so going to regret it tomorrow."

Luffy jumped up with a laugh, dragging Brook to the pirate band and urging them to start playing again. "Let's have a real pirate party, guys!"

The party really took off then, because even if they had a million and one problems, though trouble looked to be on the horizon, regardless of what had happened in the past few weeks, their Booster Shot Four was happy, safe, and home, and their good, lighthearted mood was contagious.

They were tireless and energetic, giving them one song after the other, and Sanji was challenging everyone who dared to dance off with him. He shed his outer coat quickly, and after four songs he was shrugging his lighter suit jacket off, loosening the tie at his neck with a tug. With every partner he lost, he gave a long mirthful laugh and moved faster, until Robin began to see sparks at his feet with every step he took. Concerning, but not as intriguing as the fact that after what seemed like an endless dance which no one could keep up with, he collapsed into Zoro's arms with a sloppy grin, shoving his hat on top of the swordsman's head.

Sweat dripped all over his face and left his hair hanging in darkened, damp strands, and he leaned in close to Zoro's face, but Robin couldn't see what he did or said, because Franky chose that moment to belt out a note that had Brook shedding tears ("though I have no tear ducts, ohohoho! Skull" -sniffle-" joke!") and she was left to go drag them off the stage, as no one showed any intent of stopping that night.

She left Sanji in the first mate's hands; after all, he had sought Zoro out himself. Maybe they could finally get things resolved between them.

* * *

Sanji woke up feeling like his mouth was the Alabasta desert and that he had run his tongue over many, many sand dunes. With a whimper, he rolled over onto his side and braced himself mentally before bringing himself to stand, but a certain obstacle was in his path. He froze, looking at the lump like he could just will it away.

He was still there.

"Oh, God."

Sanji shook his head, but that just made the headache worse, and he nearly vomited right on top of his bedfellow. After he clambered carefully over him, Sanji backed away from Zoro with a horrified expression and a panicked internal mantra of "nope-nope-nope". This was not happening.

He tried desperately to remember the previous night, but the flashes of what came to mind just made his mind scream just a little bit more. Getting uncontrollably drunk. Giving everyone what he remembered suspiciously as a disguised strip tease. Falling into Zoro's arms. His brain shut down after that.

_Talk to him,_ Franky had said. _He'll listen to you_, he said.

This was probably not what he'd had in mind.

Taking a deep breath, Sanji inched closer to the swordsman and peered under the covers. He was still fully dressed. _And so am I._

So, they hadn't done the…deed, but what had he said to Zoro last night before everything went black? What if he had told him everything and Zoro was disgusted with him? Or worse, what if he pitied him?

_If he ever gets soppy with me, I'll feed him his own teeth for breakfast._

Dragging himself into the bathroom, he wearily stripped down and washed himself off as well as he could while running on empty. At least no one else was up at this hour to watch him have a nervous breakdown over the stupid green marimo's body. Honestly, he was acting like an idiot over this, and not just because he had let his imagination run wilder than Usopp's when he first saw Zoro's scruffy green head next to his (although his heart had yet to slow its rabbit-fast beating). It was likely that nothing had happened last night, nothing at all, and he was simply jumping to conclusions.

Sanji wished that he knew what he had told Zoro, at any rate.

The rest of the night's affairs returned to him after he managed to hold down a cup of tea and some toast in the kitchen, much to his relief.

_You…and me…got to exch-, extorn-, eches-…do the word thing. I give you words and you give me words. Got it, Marimo?_

Besides sounding like he was having his brain leak out of his ears, he had said nothing incriminating or inappropriate, and he was going to be able to get out of this situation unscathed. All he had to do was wait until Zoro woke up, and then he just had to open his mouth. And. Talk.

Sanji looked wearily out of the porthole at the empty, silent docks. Dawn was still hours away, but he could see a few of the lanterns from last night still glowing weakly along the walkways. The platform that they had danced on had scorch marks, and he wondered how close he had been to _Diablo Jambe_-ing the entire port. He was never going to drink that much ever again, he vowed, letting his head rest against the window pane.

Something caught his eye out on the deck, and he shuffled out miserably into the cold morning air to the edge of Sunny's bow, where a pile of bags and clothes lay abandoned on the floorboards. Some of them were his, he realized, but at least he still had his pants on. He gave Franky's trousers a disappointed look and dug around for his coat, deciding that he really just wanted a cigarette right now.

Instead of his pack of cigarettes or his lighter, he found a crumpled piece of paper in the inner pocket of his coat; he frowned, trying to remember if he had put it there himself. No, all of his notes were in the pack downstairs, in the sleeping quarters.

Sanji's eyes widened, and he glanced out at the empty piers, searching for someone who was probably long gone by now. He didn't know who they were or what they wanted, or how they had even gotten this into his jacket. There was one thing he _was_ certain of:

These morons had just threatened his crew, and they were going to _pay_.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note**: So, unfortunately I misjudged my outline and had to split the chapter into two parts; the upside to this is that you get a double update! Enjoy some gross humor, my mature sense of humor, and even more toilet humor (Honestly, I don't know how anyone is still following this anymore). I think this is my way of preparing you for the arc that's coming up in the next chapters.

* * *

A heavy fog hung over the harbor that morning, the perfect cover for what he was planning to do. Sanji crept down to the rocky shore off the docks, tugging the hood of his robes forward as far as it would go and hunching his shoulders to hide his face from any potential onlookers. Staithe Wharf was still deep in sleep as most of the pirate crews wouldn't be up for hours, but he couldn't risk getting caught if someone saw him and mentioned it to his crew. They would be furious with him, but there was no way he could bring them along for this.

The flat-deck skiff cut through the waters easily, and Sanji hoped that the wind would hold out long enough for him to clear the docks. He frowned when the sail was dealt a sudden heavy blow; the air around him was thick with energy and tension. Terrible weather for sailing, and he wondered if the Sunny's departure would be affected that afternoon when they left Staithe Wharf.

The Thousand Sunny's bow loomed dangerously close to his starboard, and he realized the wind current would take him straight into the ship. Growling, he kicked the collapsible sail down and leaned back, dragging the side of the sleek boat up and over, and both cook and skiff vanished underwater.

Sanji took a deep breath when he resurfaced, laughing softly at his luck. The boat's velocity had carried him underneath the bow and right into the sea current he had been looking for.

"Not bad for a tiny old dinghy with a makeshift sail," he chuckled, brushing wet strands of hair from his face before adjusting his hood again. His good mood was superficial; the note he found not an hour ago was still tucked into the folds of his clothes and reminded him why he was out here in the first place. The sail went up again, and Sanji coasted along the island's shore smoothly before taking the boat away from Staithe, and he didn't look back at the Sunny once.

_Sorry, everyone. I think I need to do this alone._

* * *

Zoro gave a deep yawn as he stretched his arms over his head, wincing when he felt the uncharacteristic stiffness still lingering in his body. He should have recovered from Thriller Bark by now, but even the lightest training reps sent spasms through his muscles, and he wasn't keen on working himself into unconsciousness, not when Chopper had just given him the okay to return to what he called Zoro's "insanity exercises". Enforced bed rest was not how he planned to spend their time in the New World; the cook would laugh his head off all the way to Raftel and back. He would never let him live it down.

He glanced at the empty space beside him, grinning as he remembered last night's celebrations where Sanji had bested the entire port's pirate population in a dance off after practically marinating himself in alcohol. If anything, he was even more energetic and agile while intoxicated, and as tireless as their captain on a good day. He had let the cook dance to his heart's content, even when the docks had threatened to ignite underneath his feet.

When he had started to pull his clothes off to catch the attention of God-knows-who, Zoro had intervened, knowing that leaving Curlybrow to wake up naked on the pier would be a terrible idea for many reasons; close quarters on the open sea were already uncomfortable enough without the cook's whining all the way to Sabaody.

Besides, comrades watched out for each other, he told himself as he had made his way through the crowd towards Sanji, who had somehow managed to remove his suit coat and shirt while leaving his suspenders and tie in place. And there was no way he was going to leave him at the mercy of pirates who didn't seem to have many scruples when it came to copping a feel off a person so drunk he couldn't even stand anymore.

That had been scary, admittedly; none of their other crewmates seemed to have noticed, or they were too occupied somewhere else to be of any help, so when Sanji staggered into his arms it had come as a relief instead of annoyance. The other pirates had backed off, but not before shooting Zoro dirty looks as they left, and Zoro was left with an armful of drunk, cheery cook to drag back to the ship.

_Yeah, we'll do the word thing_, he had promised Sanji, and then the cook had finally passed out, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He was a filthy, sweaty mess (and after this he wasn't going to let the prissy cook ever complain about his post-workout state at the kitchen table), but Zoro didn't even care because after several weeks of unbearable tension and avoiding each other at every turn, Sanji actually wanted to talk things over.

"You really are more trouble than you're worth, shit-cook," he muttered fondly before getting up to go find him in the galley. This talk was long overdue.

Instead, he found the rest of his crew sitting in the kitchen in a somber silence that could have been taken straight from a funeral, and he knew why. Franky was slumped before the coffee brewer with a handful of coffee beans slowly trickling out of his outstretched hand, an offering to the machine that would grant him the small mercy of caffeine in the morning. Most of the ground coffee ended up on the floor.

Nami was on her back by the lounge, a damp towel thrown carelessly over her eyes, and every so often a soft, weak moan gave away her living status. Usopp was next to her on one of the stools, actually crying into his hands while Robin rubbed his back soothingly. Luffy and Brook were curled up by the stove in the corner, each cradling a large bump on the head (they had probably ticked off the Booster Shot Four).

"Hangover city," he muttered, and the three suffering members of his crew cringed simultaneously.

"_Keep it down, bastard_."

Zoro held up his hands in surrender and headed to the pantry instead, still hoping to find the cook. However, if he was in as much pain as the other three, then he didn't actually expect to get much talking done this morning. The backroom was empty, with only a few empty packs from yesterday's supply run stashed into the bottom shelf of the pantry and a long-forgotten pack of cigarettes underneath the confectioner's sugar.

"Oi, where's the shit-cook gone?"

He ignored the pitiful whimpers that his shout was met with and looked at Robin for answers.

"I believe he is going through inventory in the stores before we depart from Staithe in the afternoon. Disturbing him would be inadvisable."

"At least that's what the note said," Chopper added brightly as he entered the room with a few glasses of some strangely colored concoction and a bottle of pills. "I hope he got the medicine I left out for him, otherwise that hangover will knock him flat in seconds."

"Chopper, help me." Nami's voice was tremulous as she reached pleading hands out to the doctor. "I can't feel my brain anymore."

"I hope you've all learned a valuable lesson today," Chopper said in a stern tone, and they all nodded eagerly as he handed them one of the glasses and a couple of pills each.

"Never drink Staithe moonshine bought off a creepy old man on the Nells pier," they chorused, and Chopper's shoulders slumped. He had been hoping they would say something about the risks of indulging in too much recreational drinking or about keeping themselves hydrated between alcoholic beverages.

"It's a start, I guess."

Chopper's cure worked beautifully, and soon they were back to their normal selves, albeit a bit unsteady on their feet. Nami was distributing their new supplies and purchases among the others, and even some of the things on their "wish list" had made their way into the packs. But Franky's gift for their captain definitely took the cake.

"Guys!" Luffy yelled, holding up his newest possession with a feverish excitement, nearly trembling with joy. "Look, I have a Monkey! _And he has a straw hat!_"

The little red plush toy surprisingly resembled their captain, right down to the scar under his left eye and a wide, manic grin that matched his own. Luffy somehow managed to wrap the plush's arms around his neck and paraded around the kitchen merrily, showing off his new "Monkey Junior".

"Where did you even find that thing, Franky?" Nami laughed and gave the little monkey's tail a gentle tug, to Luffy's displeasure. "It looks just like him."

"I told you Sky Mall has everything," the shipwright grinned, holding out a brightly colored brochure filled with pictures of stuffed toys. All of them were exclusively monkeys. "There was this store I found called Monekijns, where they can make anyone you want their own personalized monkey. It's got really dumb and cutesy names like 'primation nation' and 'simian formation', but I couldn't get Luffy out of my mind and I got this one for him."

"Behold, the heir to my estate. My legacy will continue."

Brook frowned. "That doesn't sound legally possible, Luffy. You can't name a plush as your beneficiary in your will because he can't consent to receipt of his share."

"Actually, if the beneficiary doesn't outright decline a share in the will, then whatever Luffy decides to gift him will be presumed his."

"However, Usopp, you _could_ contest the legality of the will on the basis that the recipient is not a legally recognized person or organization."

"That depends on your definition of person, Navigator-san. Our captain could put in an explicative addendum to the will, declaring Junior-kun as his beneficiary."

"It's really complicated, even for me. For example, as a reindeer with the Human-Human Fruit, I could fall under the category of a being with personhood, or even under the pet clause, as condescending as that is. And that's not even counting the fact that the estate of a pirate is already a problematic legal matter in itself."

"Are you actually arguing the technicalities of a nonexistent will that Luffy might never write because he suggested he wants to leave everything he owns to a _stuffed animal_?"

Franky glared furiously at all of his crewmates, who just blinked back sheepishly from their circle at the table. Legal books were spread out before them, already marked up with pen and highlighter streaks.

Zoro shook his head. "What does Luffy even own, anyway?"

They all turned their gaze at the captain, who was curled up on his side with Monkey cradled lovingly in his arms.

Luffy looked up at all of them with a disappointed expression. "Leave me and my heir apparent alone, you jealous meanies."

* * *

The barrier island off of Staithe Wharf's main coast once held a full-scale amusement park, with two main docking piers for tourists to disembark and enter the fairgrounds. Now, the place lay in a forlorn, neglected state, and its former glory was lost to time and memories; a thick coating of dirt had hardened over the once bright and expansive rides, wild vines and grasses sprung up from the broken concrete, and wreckage from the dilapidated buildings that had survived the ocean's harsh storms littered the ground. The grand sign at the park's entrance had been bleached by sun and sea, and its name had long since faded away.

Sanji picked his way through the debris carefully, using an old broken figure's head to pull himself up onto the platform. His Alabasta robes snagged on the cracked edge of the clown's teeth, and he grimaced when he looked down at the grotesque face beneath him. It was hard to imagine that the clown had ever been pleasant to look at.

The message had requested that he meet this bastard at the docks on the ocean side of the island, but following the directions laid out for him in the note was a stupid move, and he would rather get some investigating done. There was no need to get the rest of his crew involved just yet, not when they would just get in the way of reconnaissance.

They were hiding in the bumper cars arena, a three-man band of bandits that he couldn't even muster up the effort to fight (strangely, they called themselves the Flying Fish Riders, which had to be one of the weirdest names for a group of men who looked like they would be more at home in a motorcycle gang than with anything related to the sea). They were discussing the food at some fishman's seaside stand, and none of them had any visible weapons on them. Had this whole thing just been a ruse?

His further searching provided nothing else but a couple of broken saddles abandoned on the inner coast of the island, and a large bag of grains and grasses stored away behind the bumper cars storage. He was almost disappointed, and more than upset at the fact that these hooligans had sent him a threatening letter that had set him off so badly it had been enough to bring him out all the way to this abandoned park.

Turning to leave, he figured that he had enough time to make his crew a real breakfast when he got back, but a sudden movement froze him in his tracks.

One of the men leaned back in his seat, propping his legs up on the hood of a car. "Poor sap's already let his guard down…"

The others burst into laughter, and Sanji felt his blood run cold.

He had just enough time to turn around and brace himself for the impact as a furious gale slammed into him, clawing at his robes and tearing his hood back. When the wind finally died down, Sanji opened his stinging eyes and looked around frantically for his attacker,.

"Oh no, he's so much hotter in person."

Sanji blinked. "What?"

"What."

The other bandits looked at the wall in confusion. "Um, boss. We can all hear you."

There was a muffled curse, and after a couple of loud thumps and stomps a figure stepped out from the shadows, draped in a long, flowing cape. "Well, fuck me. So much for the big entrance."

Sanji tilted his head, eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out if he was being pranked or something.

"Anyway…" The man stepped forward into the light and lifted his head, the heavy iron mask on his face gleaming with his every movement. "Black Leg Sanji, you have ruined my very existence. Prepare to die."

As far as murderous, raging stalkers are concerned, Sanji really seemed to have the pick of the lot. Really, when the man whose sole purpose in life is to end yours chooses to drag you out to an abandoned amusement park to murder you violently among the shattered clown heads of fury and despair, you know that you have a keeper.

The bumper car aimed at his head was a nice touch, of course.

Sanji ducked out of the building through the beautiful new hole in the wall, while Iron Mask and his goons shoved through the mess of bumper cars strewn across the arena; at least that gave him a precious few moments to look for a way out of this place.

He briefly considered trying to stand his ground and fight, but after they started throwing the clown heads _at_ him, he decided that he was done with these guys.

The undergrowth was really heavy in this section, but it offered a good cover for Sanji as he crept away from the Flying Fish Riders and the creepy man in the iron mask. They ran right past his hiding spot behind the collapsed lean-to near the concession stands on the west side of the park, and the cook sighed in relief when their shouts had faded away. Now, he just needed to get his bearings and come up with a plan for facing them; he had faced bigger, uglier bastards before. _Kick and run, Sanji_. Easy enough.

"I think he's close by; there's no way he left the island."

Shit, he thought they were gone already.

As he backed away from the man's voice, he stumbled into something and fell over with a yelp, clapping a hand over his mouth much too late to muffle the sound.

A loud clank resounded in the cramped space he found himself in, and then the whole place started moving shakily. Sanji sat up gingerly, rubbing the bump on his head and looking around for Iron Mask and his friends.

He was sprawled out in the back seat of one very battered roller coaster car, legs akimbo, and the whole train was _moving_.

"How the hell does this thing still have power?"

"There he is!"

The man stalked toward him on the roller coaster tracks, slinging a heavy gun over his shoulder with one hand as though it was made of foam. Or cotton candy, which was fitting given that they were in an amusement park.

"Black Leg, I never took you as the type to run away," the man chuckled, taking his time to lift the gun with a lazy, unhurried aim. "But I won't let you live, not after the grievous wound you have dealt me, or my name isn't Iron Mask Duval!"

Several huge harpoons drove into the tracks behind the train, and Sanji grunted when the car slammed right into them, unable to continue further up the tracks. Smoke quickly began to build up under the hood of the first car from the exertion, and he climbed up onto the steep slope and shoved his foot between the harpoons and the car's bumper.

"I don't remember what kind of injury I gave you, bastard," he growled as he braced himself against the metal rods, "But if you're still alive, then it can't have been as bad as what I'm about to do to you now!"

He kicked out as hard as he could, and the cars nearly ripped off the tracks as they barreled down towards Duval. The man leapt over them and began sprinting up the slope after him, leaving Sanji to turn and retreat further up the tracks for better footing; there was no way he could fight on a rickety, narrow surface like this without falling over the edge.

"No, of course you wouldn't remember, but I will make you know my pain before you die!" Iron Mask shouted, firing several more harpoons at him, which he dodged with a twist and spring of his wrist. Landing lightly on the tracks, he whirled around and let Iron Mask continue running toward him; all he needed was one good opening to bring this guy down.

"You're pretty cocky, but can you actually go hand-to-foot against me?" Sanji called down, cringing inwardly at the sight of the expressionless iron mask staring straight back at him. It was unnerving to have to fight an opponent whose face he couldn't see.

"I'll do even better and go head-to-foot with you, you cretin!"

"That…doesn't make sense."

The explosion caught them both off guard, and Sanji was thrown into the broken tracks with enough force to knock the wind from him. Somewhere in the shockwave, he felt his shoulder twist underneath him as he skidded off the tracks, but his other hand shot out just in time to grab the end of the broken rail, and he found himself dangling over the edge of a fifty-meter drop over nothing but solid concrete. _Fuck._

"Idiots! I told you to wait until after I got down to blow this thing apart!"

Iron Mask tumbled down what was left of the incline and hurtled into the other three men, and they vanished from Sanji's line of sight into the underbrush, but he had more important things to worry about. His right shoulder was throbbing painfully and he was fast losing his grip on the jagged edge of the rail. Sweat slicked his fingers and he dug his palm into the metal desperately.

"Come on…please hold out…."

The roller coaster shuddered and gave a low, painful groan, and then the whole thing began to fall apart.

No…no…_no!_

His fingers slipped away from the rail, and Sanji gave a sharp cry as he plummeted downward into the crumbling debris of the roller coaster.

* * *

Zoro glanced up from his corner of the room where he was polishing his blades with his new sword kit from City Mall's Iron Steele, courtesy of their sniper.

"Do you feel like we should be somewhere important right now?"

The others were spread out across the recreation room where they had taken shelter from the stormy weather; each of the pirates was preoccupied with their own gifts and purchases from the island. Usopp fiddled with a strange new kit on the couch, while Nami and Robin had buried themselves in a pile of new books and various stationery ("the pink bunnies represent the lost souls of the men indebted to me"), and Chopper was ecstatic with the sweets and journals he had received (he was cross referencing many of his notes from older journals while popping chocolates into his mouth after every turn of the page). Brook's music drifted through the room, playing the newest single by his favorite group, the West Blue's pop sensation Svenbalt, and he and Franky tinkered with one of the gear sets that they planned to use to patch up the old piano in the storage.

Their captain shrugged from where he sat in the middle of the floor, stroking Monkey's furry red head with a practiced air of authority.

"I dunno."

* * *

Sanji ran across the rickety rooftop of the shooting gallery, hoping that he wouldn't break his legs while trying to escape from Iron Mask and his crew. His shoulder had gone stiff and hurt with every jolting step he took; there was no way he was going to be able to withstand anything more than the most basic of his attacks against these guys. He was beginning to wish that he had brought at least _one_ of his crewmates along with him.

_Damnit, Sanji; you really messed up this time. _

One of the cotton candy booths at the corner of the street exploded, and the cook found himself being chased by a _flying fish_ all the way to the kiddie ride section of the park. _Oh, so that's why they're called the Flying Fish Riders._

Iron Mask and his men launched a merciless attack on him from the air, and he was forced into one of the half-collapsed buildings just to be able to catch his breath. Muffling his breaths as well as he could in the dusty, stale air of the house, Sanji glanced outside and wondered why the attacks had stopped. When he turned around, he found himself face to face with an iron mask.

"Shit."

He tore into the building with the man close at his heels, running down the narrow hallways straight into a dead end. The cook stopped and turned around, looking everywhere for Iron Mask, but all he was met with was a curtain of cobwebs and some horrifyingly huge spiders. Clapping a hand over his mouth, he held back a scream and wondered if this was how everything was going to end for him, alone at the mercy of a murderer and with only a trio of ugly hairy spiders to witness his death.

Just as a particularly friendly spider brushed its leg against his tear-streaked cheek, the lights came on in the building, and the spiders immediately retreated, leaving him standing alone in the brightly lit corridor. Wherever he looked he ended up staring at his own panicked reflection on the walls. Mirrors?

"Black Leg, get out here and face me like a man!"

The Hall of Mirrors spiraled and twisted like a maze, and Sanji knew that he could use this to his advantage. Iron Mask was huge and moving around in these close quarters was going to be difficult for him. With a grin, he retraced his steps and slipped down a new pathway, using the man's angry shouts to choose his course and avoid him. All he had to do was get into the space behind Iron Mask's mirrors…

"Is this really the guy who's worth seventy-seven million? Get out, you coward!"

Sanji inhaled deeply, shifting his weight in the cramped space to try to give himself some room to move. What a bastard, he wouldn't even face the cook without those crazy flying fish guys to back him up. The iron mask was right in front of him now, and then Sanji broke through the barrier, a rain of glass and twisted metal falling around him.

Both men stared silently into opposite mirrors, ears ringing from the impact.

And then Sanji let out a blood-curdling scream.

* * *

Brook burst out laughing in the middle of a violin piece he was working on; he was shaking so badly that he had to put his instrument down and sit.

Everyone gave him a bewildered look.

"What's so funny, Bones-bro?"

The musician chuckled and wiped away mirthful tears, shaking his head as though he had just thought of the most amusing joke. "Have you ever wondered if someone that looks like Sanji's wanted poster actually exists?"

They all considered it for a moment, and even Luffy gave it some thought. "Eh, that would have to be one sad man. I hope they never meet; Sanji would probably cry."

Brook howled with laughter.

* * *

The beach was empty and barren, cracking underneath his shoes with every step he took. Sand had baked and hardened under the harsh sun, and it offered him a purchase for his feet, at the very least. His thoughts, however, were a whirlwind of frustration and despair, and he couldn't get the image of his wanted poster's face glaring at him from all directions in the park's mirror house.

Sanji whirled around to glare at the man who wore the face that he hated the most in the world, and Iron Mask Duval retorted that he could say the same of him.

"After all this time-"

"I never could have imagined-"

"Even in my dreams it was almost impossible-"

"What my nightmares have brought forward-"

"Meeting you is all I have lived for-"

"Forgetting you is all I wanted-"

"And yet now, I only have one thought-"

"_How dare you look upon me with that face!_" They shouted at each other.

To Sanji's surprise, tears began to well up in Duval's eyes, and he let out a horrible wail. His men sobbed with him, crying about the horrible pain he had wrought on their beloved leader.

"What are you talking about? I don't even know you."

"Shut up and think for a moment, moron!" The man drew out a copy of Sanji's bounty poster, and the cook instinctively recoiled and hissed at it. "Look at our faces, and then look at the poster. Who do you think the Marines are going to go after?"

Guilt coiled in Sanji's stomach, and he looked at the battered, worn men before him. He hadn't considered what the existence of that face would mean in real life. They must have been dragged into a fugitive lifestyle when his bounty was first posted, and Sanji had been none the wiser.

"I used to live such a happy and carefree life back in my hometown, before you became a pirate big shot and ruined everything."

Oh, now he _really_ felt bad.

He sighed wistfully and clutched the paper to his chest. "People would cower before me as I extorted money from them, and my presence inspired respect and fear from everyone around me. Now, I have to hide my face in shame and fear of being captured by the Marines again. The life I knew and loved is gone, all thanks to you."

Sanji glared at him, completely unimpressed. All his sympathy had evaporated instantly. "So you were a bully, huh?"

"That doesn't mean I deserved to be imprisoned unfairly like that! I-I-I…I ain't even a pirate!"

"True, but a man always reaps what he sows." Sanji crossed his arms over his chest and smirked. "Consider that payback for what you've done to the innocent people in your village. Act like a criminal, get treated like one."

"Fine, I kin accept that, but I came out 'ere to kill you, not t' blather like a pair o' grannies!" Duval stuck two of his fingers into his mouth and let out a long, piercing whistle. "Motobaro, trumple 'im like the roach 'e is."

Sanji furrowed his brow; Duval's accent had gotten thicker and more confusing as his anger increased, but then what he had said became very clear to the cook. _So that's what they needed the grass clippings for._

Motobaro was a huge beast of a bison, barreling into Sanji at full speed before he even knew what was going on. Hitting the ground with a loud thump, Sanji rolled over just in time to avoid being trampled, and he stood up shakily as the animal turned around to charge again. The pain in his chest told him he had definitely broken something; another of those attacks would probably shatter his ribcage.

Glancing around quickly as he dodged the bison's rampage, Sanji noticed the old wood pilings out on the rough surf of the ocean, and he ran out into the choppy waves before leaping up onto the nearest one with a splash. Out on the beach, Motobaro let out a low groan and stomped his feet.

"Shit, that thing's scary," he chuckled weakly, holding his side in pain. "How'd you get him all the way across the water?"

Duval smirked and nodded at his bison proudly. "He swims."

"What?"

The bison rammed into the first piling with a deafening roar, sending it into the sea with a crash, and Sanji just managed to throw himself against the second.

"Oh, come _on_!"

"Tch, they give anyone a bounty these days."

Sanji's voice was low and dangerous. "What did you say, Black Leg wannabe?"

Duval screamed, and he launched himself at the closest pole in the water. His men tried to stop him but he had already drawn out his own weapon. "Motobaro, this 'un's mine!"

"Feeling lucky, I see. Give up while you can, Duval; I'm not the type of guy who holds back."

"M' life's already forf'it, with th' Tyrant after yer sort; I kin at least take y'all with me!"

A barrage of harpoons embedded themselves into the rotting wood, and Sanji knew that the dock pilings would not hold for long. He dodged and twisted with every attack, edging closer and closer so he could take this guy down, but then he misjudged Duval's next move.

Pain erupted in his side, and Sanji stared in disbelief at the blossoming red stain on his blue robes. Blood oozed between his fingers, dark and sticky, as he held his side protectively. Several meters behind him, buried deep within the pole, was a long, smoking harpoon pinning a strip of blue cloth to the dock piling. It had been poisoned, he realized dully, watching the waters stain purple and red.

"Scorpion's Poison harpoons are my specialty," Duval said as he strolled calmly towards him on the wood pilings. "They have a little _kick_ that you might like."

How dare he.

Sanji's foot slammed right into the man's face, and he hooked his other foot into the harpoon gun's strap, wrenching it away from Duval's grasp; with a grunt, he kicked him straight in the middle of his chest, knocking him against several of the pilings before he managed to pull himself back up.

"You're going to die, bastard!"

"You're the one who forced me to retaliate, idiot!" Sanji's side was going numb, and between the nasty harpoons and the nastier puns, he found the whole thing so disconcerting. He had to end the fight now, before the poison spread any further. "It's not like I even did anything; if you had wanted to avoid getting caught, you could have just changed your appearance like a normal person instead of hiding under a stupid iron mask!"

That made Duval pause in thought, and he tapped his chin with his fingers lightly. "That would have worked, too…why didn't I think of that?"

Sanji threw himself at the man with a scream of rage.

* * *

He might have gotten a little too enthusiastic with the kicking. And maybe the wooden dock pilings ended up collapsing underneath them. So the bastard wasn't conscious enough to swim back up to the surface, so what?

Sanji grit his teeth as he hauled Duval out of the water towards his men, who had burst into tears again over their fallen leader's injuries.

"Boss, are you okay?"

"Say something to us, chief."

"We need a doctor!"

Sanji glared at the unconscious man, willing him to wake up. Duval lay motionless on the dry, parched earth, water dripping off of him and into the thirsty ground. He showed no signs of life.

The bastard's damned cow gave a soft keening cry, and Sanji sighed heavily.

"God damn the day I was born." He leaned over the man and began to push down on the center of his chest, trying to remember what Chopper had showed the crew on the day of their mandatory first aid classes (it had gone as well as every other Straw Hats venture, but at least he had learned something from it). Tilting his chin up and forcing his mouth open, Sanji took a deep breath and blew into his mouth, praying to every deity that he could ever remember even _hearing_ about to please, please let the man wake up now. _Please_, goddamnit all to hell in a handbasket.

After an eternity of hell, Duval's chest rose on its own, and the man began to cough up sea water by the mouthfuls, and Sanji wondered if he had swallowed half of the Grand Line while underwater. He turned a starry-eyed gaze on Sanji, and the cook swallowed back the bile in his throat. He was not about to be hit on by a man two-and-a-half times his size.

(Who was a man. As in _not_ a beautiful lady.)

"You…are one…bodacious…dame..."

Yep. This was his life. Before Sanji could muster up the energy for a scathing retort, his vision darkened and he almost fell over on top of Duval, who sat up immediately with a look of horror on his face. "Whoa, not on me, you idiot!"

"Boss, he saved your life! That guy's not all that bad."

His men were wiping away heartfelt tears, and Duval seemed to be considering something. He reached into a pouch in his jacket and drew out a little vial filled with a blood orange colored liquid. Popping the cap off, he plunged what felt like a needle tip into Sanji's leg, and in response he brought his fist up against Duval's chin with a satisfying crack.

Duval groaned through his fingers. "That's the antidote to my poison, you jerk."

"Oh." Sanji stared down at the little vial as it emptied out into his body. The reaction was almost instantaneous, and he felt a gentle warmth spread up his leg and into his torso, pooling around the injury in his side. "You could have said something."

"Gahhh…"

"Sorry." (He wasn't sorry.)

"Wait…what did you do to my _face_?"

Sanji smiled knowingly and closed his eyes, letting the antidote work its way through his body while he rested. "You'll be sore for a week, but with proper hydration and care you'll be as good as new…well, with a new face, anyway. Are you okay with it?"

"I'm _gorgeous_."

"Let's not get too full of ourselves. You're still the same person inside, and I can't do anything about _that_."

"Why…why did you save me? I beat you up and poisoned you, Black Leg. I-"

"You're not as bad a person as you pretend to be, Duval." Sanji opened his eyes and gave him a sharp glare. "You've done some pretty shitty stuff, but being locked up for someone else's choices wasn't fair to you. I thought you deserved a second chance. Don't waste it or I'll come after you and give you your old face back."

Duval grinned and drew close to him, to Sanji's dismay ("No, stay back. Seriously, I don't…ugh.") and he threw his arms around him joyfully. "For a pirate, you ain't so bad yerself, Black Leg!"

"I'm very uncomfortable."

"Hahaha, so am I! Awkward group hug, everyone!"

The Flying Fish Riders weren't so bad, once you got past their murderous intent and general criminality. After Duval declared him completely poison-free and cured, they offered to give him a ride back to Staithe, which he had to decline because the fisherman from whom he had stolen his skiff was probably going to be missing the boat by now.

"No, really; we'll give you a quick tow to the port. It's better than fighting this storm out here right now."

That was how Sanji found himself on his little skiff again, flying across the waters at top speed with Duval and his men riding ahead of him in the crashing waves. Motobaro snorted and tossed his head with every splash, but he was leading the group of fish marvelously; Sanji had never seen a land-based animal take to water like this bison.

"You really do meet the strangest creatures out here," he muttered softly, and Duval looked at him curiously. He was surprised that the man actually heard him over the steady roar of the ocean.

"You're not from the Grand Line?"

"East Blue, actually," he called back over the rushing waves, holding onto the boat's makeshift mast for dear life. "I'm a former sous-chef who just ended up running with "the wrong crowd". Our crew has actually only been sailing the Line for a few months."

"What are you doing all the way out here? And as a pirate too?"

"Just chasing a dream. Being a dastardly outlaw is only one of the perks of the journey."

The waters calmed slightly and stopped rocking the boat back and forth long enough for Sanji to fold up the sail he had woven earlier; Luffy's toilet paper had come in handy for something, he thought in amusement, and the funniest thing was that it wasn't actually toilet paper. When he had tried tearing a strip from one of the many baskets they had collected yesterday, the paper wouldn't rip, and he realized that it was actually just an oddly cut mixed blend cloth. Whether the fabric had been mistakenly labeled as toilet paper or if it had been a cover up for a botched cutting job, he would always affectionately call this masterpiece his "toilet paper sail".

(Why yes, he _was_ a mature young gentleman, thank you kindly.)

Sanji looked out across the water as they approached Staithe Wharf from the south, and his heart gave a joyful leap when he saw the Sunny's lion figurehead illuminated in the morning light. He remembered the note that he had found on the deck of the ship and shot Duval a testy glare. "Just a note of warning, bastard: if you ever threaten to kidnap my friends again, I'll shove my foot so far up your ass you'll be sucking my shoe polish off your teeth for a month."

"When did I do that?" Duval looked over his shoulder at Sanji's scowl, and the cook folded his arms over his chest, tucking the sail under his arm.

"The ominous letter that you wrote on the back of my bounty poster? You know, that you left in my coat last night?"

"Oh, _that_ note. I just said what I thought a murderous stalker would write. I hope you didn't get too scared."

Sanji gave him an exasperated look. "You wrote, 'Die a free man or die as ransom for your friends.' How was I supposed to take that?"

Duval rubbed the back of his neck and forced a weak laugh. "I guess I just really got used to extortion and abduction while chasing after you…no, that's not right. I think I've always been nothing more than a criminal."

The cook studied the gloomy frown on his face, and he wondered just how such a dumb softie had ended up as a small-time mafia member, let alone making a name for himself out here as a kidnapping gang leader. Maybe he was just criminally stupid. "You're ashamed of yourself. You know, it's never too late to change. Besides, being a criminal isn't a bad thing if you're not hurting innocent people."

Duval's face brightened, and Sanji pretended that he didn't care what the man thought of himself; he just didn't want him to start crying again. "You're right! With a new face and a second chance, I can do anything with my life now!"

With a genuinely happy laugh, Duval leaned back in the saddle on his bison's back and settled into an easy conversation with the cook; in the background, they could hear his crew babbling on and on about how _handsome_ their leader was, and what a great turn everything had taken, and wasn't life really rosy after all?

Sanji stared out across the water at the soft pink light breaking through the storm clouds on the horizon with a smile and thought, _maybe it is_.


	8. Chapter 8

**Note**: There is NO major character death in this chapter. It may just seem that way. I also apologize for the terrible humor in this, but it's sort of a buffer for the very bad things that everyone is about to go through.

* * *

Sanji stashed the robes under the extra blankets in the hall closet; he would see if the damage could be sewn up later, but at least the blood and dirt had come out of the light blue fabric.

_What a little saltwater and patience can do_, he marveled, smoothing the wrinkles on the linen cloth with a fond touch. He (and the entire crew, actually) looked forward to the day they would see Vivi-chan again; the princess held a dear place in their hearts, even though they had only traveled together for a brief time. Losing this would have hurt him a lot, and he knew that he needed to find a better way to disguise himself next time something like this came up. _Maybe a fake beard and moustache combo could work…_

The Sunny was quiet when he crept up from the ship's hold, and the cook wondered if his crew had gone mad with his disappearance and devoured each other out of despair. The clock in the galley only read ten o'clock; they should have had plenty to eat from the breakfast spread he had set out on the kitchen table, even with Luffy's monstrous appetite.

He took the opportunity to sneak into the bathroom to wash up, though the hot bath he wanted would have to wait. If one of the others caught him changing his bandages or saw the black-and-blue spreading along his shoulder blade, they would definitely start asking questions, and frankly, he just wanted to forget the whole bounty poster face-off fiasco. Sneaking off without telling anyone might also set them off; they would probably yell and rant at him for pulling such a stupid stunt by himself.

_Almost losing Usopp in Water 7 was painful enough; I don't need them accusing me of trying to leave them too._

As Sanji wearily climbed up the stairs past the library, the door swung open, and he froze in the glare of the light suddenly pouring out over him.

He was met with the grim, curious stares of a roomful of pirates, both his nakama and some he recognized from Mikolo's crew, but the captain's piercing gaze was all that he could focus on.

Luffy cocked his head and smiled without mirth.

"We need to talk."

* * *

The navigator cursed under her breath as she laid out the maps and charts showing Staithe Wharf and the surrounding waters, quickly scanning over the various landmarks and waterways to orient herself with the layout of the area. Her notes from this morning's readings were spread open on the library's desk, which they had pushed against the conference table for this meeting between the two pirate groups, and the two captains had gathered around the setup with their first mates and navigators, while the rest of the crew had situated themselves around the room

"This doesn't look good, captain," the Lathos navigator muttered, "There is an occluded front developing along the main water route out of the port, and according to Nami-san's notes, it looks to be a big squall. I wouldn't risk heading out in this weather anyway, and we have another concern as well."

Nami pointed at the water on Staithe's east end, where a strange dotted landmark was labeled in tiny, fine print. "These are the Petalstones, the most deceptively named rock formation I've ever seen. They are anything _but_ small and delicate, and if the waves don't capsize us outright, the strong winds will smash us right against them."

"We're talking at least thirty meters high, with several underwater outcroppings that could tear our ships' hulls apart." Issok glanced up at the others and furrowed his brow. "Maybe the Sunny could clear it without the Adam wood giving way, but we'd be ripped to shreds in less than nineteen minutes out there."

Franky looked furious at the thought of deliberately putting his beloved ship in harm's way. "How long until the storm passes?"

"Not before noon tomorrow, maybe even later," Nami said, running through her calculations again worriedly. "And we'd be pushing it really close then."

"We don't have time to wait until then, not with these idiots breathing down our necks over that bastard Khala-Shala-whatever." Zoro scowled, standing protectively beside his captain, who had settled down on one of the armchairs and was watching the proceedings with his usual relaxed air. "They'll have time to plan an ambush as soon as we leave the harbor, and we're badly outnumbered."

Thaddeus stared grimly at the charts scattered over the conference table.

"I don't want to give them a chance to attack, either," the Lathos captain said carefully, looking at Luffy to gauge his reaction. "But our navigators don't worry without reason, captain. We'd be rushing to our graves tonight."

The two pirate crews looked at each other in quiet dread; neither option was favorable.

"I-isn't there any way to avoid them? Can't we take a different route?" Usopp was staring at the maps with a fearful look, clutching Chopper tightly to his chest.

Nami sighed. "Not with the present wind patterns and ocean currents. The only way to go is forward, and that'll have to wait until tomorrow afternoon, at the earliest."

"Maybe there is, Nami-swan."

The cook had been silent ever since they told him about Khalashtrogos and the suspicious hostilities coming from some of the other pirate crews on the docks, and his pale face looked almost sallow in the bright lights of the main library area. Right now, though, he had a calculating look in his eyes, and the color had returned to his cheeks. He stepped past the captains and moved his hand across the main map of Staithe Wharf.

"Right along here-" he dragged his fingers over the edge of the water below Staithe Wharf on the map "-there's a reef called Endwolle, and it leads straight into the island's inner bedrock. There's an underwater vent out here by this little barrier island," his finger circled a small elongated shape by Staithe's west end, "which is a part of the reef itself, and the constant convection from the ocean floor creates an irregular current that heads to the southwest."

"…back toward the Florian Triangle?" Nami looked down at the empty blue space under his pointer finger. "But there's nothing on the maps, Sanji-kun. What are you talking about?"

"Right, it's not on the maps because it's an irregular current that can't be detected except by someone who's actually been down there in the reef."

Sanji tapped his finger against the little ellipse next to Staithe.

"Remember the barrier island? That underwater vent close to it actually turns the current in on itself, and it wraps around Staithe Wharf's coast over here and here," he gestured to two separate points on the uneven coastline. "-until it has come around all the way to the island's _north_ end right there."

"There's a good strong current right along that side towards the Red Line," Nami breathed, leaning in for a closer look. "We could avoid the main waterway by the port and the Petalstones completely!"

She glanced up at him with a scrutinizing frown. "How'd you find this information, Sanji?"

"It came up in my research," the cook said vaguely, but the Booster Shot Four inhaled sharply and shared a knowing grin; they couldn't wait until he told the other about the underground river in the inner island and his dream.

"We'll need a Coup de Burst or two to make it into the wiggly current, but I can fix up something similar for the Black Siet by morning," Franky nodded thoughtfully, looking at the Lathos pirates for permission to work on their ship with them. "It's not going to be easy, but it's doable."

Luffy grinned up at Thaddeus from his perch on the armchair. "Whaddya say, Captain Tad? Still wanna stick with us?"

The large man gave a hearty laugh and nodded at his men. "We're always up for adventure out here; aren't we, men? This has to be one _crazy_ scheme, but it's our best option for sure."

"Good. It would have been lonely out there without you." Luffy's eyes turned briefly to his cook, and he whined that there had been no hot food for anyone all morning.

"I'll go prepare something for our guests." Sanji turned away and headed for the kitchen, but he seemed to hesitate at the doorway. His shoulders slumped heavily, and Nami moved past Zoro to reach out to him in concern.

"I'm sorry; it seems like I've brought you all nothing but trouble, everyone. I wish you hadn't been dragged into my decision like this."

Nami felt her heart sink. Was he going to take all of the blame himself?

"Sanji-"

He took a deep breath and clenched his fists at his side. "But I want something to be clear to everyone here before we continue: even if given a chance to go back, I would still make the very same choice that night. To me, a hungry man can never be turned away, no matter who he is or what kind of trouble he may bring. I don't regret a single thing I did, and I never will!"

Their captain lowered his head and grinned from under the brim of his hat.

"_Meshi_!"

Sanji stiffened, and everyone else gave each other perplexed looks. Cooked rice? What was Luffy talking about?

Luffy's tone was light and playful, but there was a noticeable seriousness underneath it all.

"You don't have to explain yourself or apologize. If I thought you would ever go back on your resolve, you would still be back on the Baratie right now; I'll never expect anything less than this from the man I chose to be my cook!"

Sanji looked over his shoulder with a brilliant smile and a firm nod. "I'm glad you refused my refusal back then, chore boy," he laughed, striding out of the library with a definite lightness in his step. "Don't come into the kitchen until I call; we're having steak roast tonight."

"…he loves me."

Luffy jumped up from his chair and tore down the hallway after him with a gleeful shout, leaving Nami shaking her head in exasperation and the others to finish up assigning the preparations for tomorrow's departure. Zoro groaned and followed their captain into the corridor, and they could still hear his yells echoing down the stairwell.

"_Meat_! There's so much _meat_!"

* * *

"Has anyone seen my toilet paper? I'm missing the two baskets that I left out in the rec room."

Luffy tore through the ship in a frantic frenzy, looking everywhere for those two baskets like they were the One Piece itself. Usopp frowned as he peered under his plate of food and snatched it from the captain's hands before he decided to claim his grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich as well.

"Why do you need so much toilet paper again? You're not allowed to paper the docks anymore, Luffy."

"I'm going to build a fort for Monkey. Sanji, have you seen them? I really, really need to find it."

The cook had a thoughtful look on his face as he stirred the stew he was preparing for the apology lunch he had planned for leaving everyone with a cold breakfast. They still had no idea why he had spent so long in the stores doing inventory, but the only thing he would say was that he had been making some budget cuts on the spending logs ("You know, a little nip here and a tuck there.")

"Sanji?"

He set the food to simmer and turned around once he had everyone's attention. "I took a huge dump this morning. The note I left was just a cover for why I was gone for so long. There wasn't enough paper in the bathroom for what I needed, kind of like taco night on the Merry that one time, so I grabbed the two baskets and used them all, because of the huge-ass dump I took."

Everyone stared at him in wide-eyed shock and bewilderment. Sanji smiled serenely back at them. "It's high-quality, by the way; completely waterproof and resistant to at least 8 Gs without tearing."

"Holy _shit_." Franky croaked, suddenly unable to look down at his own food. "You're a monster."

"That's what she said."

They would get their appetites back by dinnertime. Probably.

(He would explain everything to them later, once they stopped trying to avoid him like he was carrying a virus. And once Chopper stopped trying to pull him aside in the infirmary to discuss his dietary habits. Quite tearfully, at that.)

* * *

Usopp frowned at the rolled white cloth in his hands.

"So…it's a sail?"

"Mm-hm."

"And you made this with our toilet paper?"

"It's not actually toilet paper, but yes."

"And it actually held out in this weather?"

Sanji took a drag from his cigarette and nodded. "Like I said, high quality stuff. Whatever vendor we got this from probably messed up the cut and tried to salvage their loss by selling it as toilet paper."

Snatching the fabric from their sniper's hands, Luffy wrapped it around his shoulders and sighed softly. "It's so soft and comfy…I wanna put this on the Mini Merry."

"Mini Merry doesn't use sails, Luffy."

"I don't care, Franky; make it have sails so I can put this up."

Zoro peered into the room with the shipwright; they were both saddled with even more supplies and tools for the project on the Black Siet and were dragging up one of Franky's heavy blades from the ship's hold. The swordsman narrowed his eyes at the huge white cloth draped over Luffy.

"What the heck do you call that thing?"

Sanji smiled proudly around his cigarette. "Toilet paper sail."

* * *

Zoro slipped into the kitchen where the cook was preparing yet another snack for the two crews as they worked together on their escape plan, and frankly, the swordsman thought that only Luffy would still have an appetite by the time dinner rolled around. Still, he leaned over and snatched up one of the little tarts, earning himself a swift kick to the shin and a muttered curse, but Sanji let him keep it anyway.

He was unusually subdued when Zoro took the knife from his hands.

"So, I guess this is it, huh?"

"You're acting like I'm about to run you through with this thing."

"…could we do that, instead?"

Zoro crossed his arms and frowned. "You're the one who wanted to 'do the word thing', Curlicue."

He sighed and rubbed his arm nervously, casting about the kitchen for a distraction. "Oh, so I actually said that?"

"Don't tell me you're chickening out?"

Sanji bristled immediately and shoved the food aside, placing both hands palm-down on the cleared surface as he leaned forward across the counter. "Hell no. Let's get this over with. I wanna get back to kicking your ugly mug all over the Sunny's deck again."

"Now we're talking," Zoro smirked, tapping impatiently at Wado's hilt. "And to be clear, _I'll_ be the one wiping the floor with your face, Curlybrow."

"You wish, Cactus Head."

He pulled a new bottle of sake out of his freshly restocked cabinet and set it in front of the swordsman with a smile. "Here, I picked this up in the Inner Cities. Thought you might like it."

The way Zoro's eyes lit up made him glad that he had chosen to bring it back from that restaurant in Heathers last night. Popping the cap off, Zoro tried out a little and nodded his approval before taking a long drag from the bottle. "So, what's the deal with the cold shoulder a couple of nights ago, and that stupid poisoning shit yesterday morning?"

The cook poured out a glass of wine for himself and sat down in one of the chairs at the table directly across from Zoro's barstool. "Oi, what about the things you said to me, Marimo? You weren't exactly innocent in all of this."

"You want me to apologize for trying to get a rise out of you?" He cocked an eyebrow and laughed. "That's part of our routine, shit-cook."

Sanji peered down into his wine; suddenly he wasn't feeling so sure of himself. Had it all been in his head? "It felt different."

"So I was mad at you. And? You were the one who started everything with the way you kept dodging me and throwing vitriol whenever we talked."

Zoro stared straight into his eyes with an insistent look. "Just tell me."

Sanji took a deep breath and steeled himself, trying to hold on to the memories of holding that little silverfish on the ferry and the feeling of his friends' support and love fluttering in his chest. He could do this. "Zoro…uh, about what happened on Thriller Bark-"

It was like someone had flicked a switch on him, and Sanji suspected that he had just done it himself. Zoro's expression closed off, and his eyes were narrowed and hard. "Nothing happened on Thriller Bark."

"Look, I know we haven't said anything to the others, but I thought that between the two of us, we could-"

"Nothing. Happened."

Sanji bit his lip; this wasn't going the way he had hoped. "You said we would talk."

"It doesn't matter. I changed my mind." Zoro stood up and capped the flask before setting it back on the table, leaving Sanji staring up at him with a hurt expression. "Thanks for the sake."

"You promised, Zoro!"

Zoro froze. Sanji heard him inhale deeply, and then he turned around with a thunderous expression. "Why does this matter so much to you?"

"It matters because you've hurt my feelings," Sanji snapped, rising to his feet to glare at him. It felt stupid and childish to say it out loud, but there it was. He wasn't going to back off now, not while he had Zoro's attention. "And all your inappropriate shit certainly didn't help things either."

"You wanna talk about inappropriate shit?" Zoro growled, pushing his stool aside and taking a step towards the kitchen table. "Okay, let's talk about the stunt you pulled on the harbor that first day. You know, when you hid behind you brand new shit-cook groupies after I came to you to apologize?"

He had tried to apologize? Sanji furrowed his brow, trying to remember what had happened on the docks after he stormed out on the swordsman. He had been fighting off an annoying sense of dizziness during his argument with Zoro, and the last thing he recalled doing was shoving past a group of pirates on the pier before collapsing at the edge of the water. His vision went black immediately afterwards, and he certainly didn't say a word to those men. Had that group been the cooks from the other ships?

"What are you talking about?" The implications of what little he remembered of the evening combined with what Zoro had just told him had started to become clear, but he had to know what they told Zoro. What had they _said_?

Zoro barreled on, completely oblivious to his panicked turmoil as he tried to figure out what the cooks had done. "Do you know how much it hurt when you brought complete strangers into our personal conflict? I was so humiliated; I felt fucking _betrayed_. I thought we were _nakama_."

"I have no idea what the hell you're saying, idiot." Sanji backed into his seat as Zoro stalked toward him. "Do you think I actually used them as a ploy for your attention?"

Zoro closed the distance between them, grabbing him by the arms and shaking him viciously. His face was twisted into a snarl, and for the first time a strange, ugly thought occurred to Sanji: the thought that Zoro might actually want to kill him.

"There, you have it! You have my fucking attention, shithead! That was what it was all about, right?"

Sanji's shoulder screamed in protest at the harsh treatment, and he struggled to get free from Zoro's grasp. "Idiot, stop that."

"Go on, say the fucking words. I'm finally listening; isn't this what you wanted?"

His nails dug into Sanji's arms, and that really, really scared him. There was no snarky banter, no flash and slash of blades, nor the freeing feel of a perfectly executed attack. There was just the two of them struggling in the kitchen, locked in a painful grip, and the words just wouldn't come out. "G-get off me, you bastard." _You're hurting me. You're _hurting_ me_.

"Speak _up_, bastard. I thought you wanted to be heard."

Sanji couldn't.

With a roar, Zoro slammed him against the wall, and stars exploded front of his eyes. He felt the ground rush up to meet his knees (or was that his knees hitting the floorboards?) and then his hands were covered in blood and Zoro was backing away in horror.

"Sh-shit."

Sanji cradled his head in his trembling hands, and he felt a numbing calmness fall over him even as he heard Zoro's panicked stammering ("Fuck, Sanji. I didn't mean it. I didn't _mean_ it.") from somewhere above him.

"I carried you back."

The swordsman stopped, and there was another footstep. Was he moving forward or back? Sanji wanted to ask him whether he was scared of what he had just done or if he was worried that Sanji would start saying all the things that he didn't want to hear. The only things that came out of his mouth, however, were all of the words he had been too scared to say earlier; everything that had caught in his throat seemed to have been jarred free in the blow he had just been dealt.

"After you told me that 'nothing' had happened, I carried you back," he said softly, knowing that Zoro was already leaving, and the words came faster in his desperation. "Do you know what that was like? There was blood everywhere, so much of it, and I was so scared. I...when I finally found Chopper, you had already stopped breathing."

The door swung open, and Sanji tried to raise his voice one last time. "You were dead-"

He clapped his hands over his mouth, and blood dripped down over his fingers; the weight of that horrible realization, and just what it meant to him, came crashing over him again, and it was all he could do to keep from screaming. His voice was a hoarse whisper, like even his body wouldn't allow him to share this burden with anyone. "You died in my arms, Zoro."

Zoro was already gone.

* * *

The Lathos pirates joined them for dinner that evening, and they announced that everything was set for tomorrow's plan. The two ships would set out at dawn under the cover of a rolling wall of fog that Nami would draw into the harbor with her Clima-Tact. Franky had assured them that the Coup de Burst should get them past the underwater reef without tearing the Black Siet apart, and then it was up to the entire crew to steer both ships through the current and around to Staithe's north end.

The atmosphere was warm and friendly despite the lingering fear over what-ifs and the countless ways this could all blow up in their faces, but Luffy told them all that if they were all to die tomorrow, then he at least wanted to eat all the meat they could throw at him.

"Just relax and eat; you can't do anything by worrying over it. We've done all we can for tonight."

Thaddeus and his men took the words to heart and regaled them all with tales of their earlier sea-faring days, and the mood was a lot lighter by the time dessert rolled around. Brook gave them his own attempt at a comedy show in which he ended up singing most of his jokes; it was an interesting effect, to say the least.

Luffy called him away when everything had quieted and most of the crew was either stumbling off to bed or already passed out at the table.

Zoro looked out across the stormy ocean and joined his captain at the Sunny's stern, wondering what this was about. Luffy leaned against the railing and stared down into the inky waters, and for a long time neither of them said anything. When the wind suddenly picked up his hat and threatened to make off with it, Zoro snatched it from midair and shoved it back down on his head.

Luffy placed his hand over Zoro's and held it there, to his bewilderment. "Luffy?"

"I can always count on you for anything, can't I?"

"Obviously." Zoro didn't remove his hand, and he noticed the smile on Luffy's face before the boy stepped away from him and let his hand go.

"You're my first mate, and that's why I let you handle a lot of stuff on your own for me. I know something happened on Thriller Bark, but you took care of it for me, so that doesn't matter. Those burdens are in the past."

He pulled himself onto the railing between the swordsman and the edge of the ship, moving so that they were mere inches from each other. Zoro could have traced out the line of the scar under his eye, even in the dark. "But I think you've left Sanji a burden in the process, and that's not fair to him."

Zoro remembered his earlier conversation with the cook and scowled, pulling away from the captain. "Whatever's bothering him, I'm sure he can handle it. He's an adult."

Luffy's hand wrapped around his wrist and anchored him there. "When I first met him, and I mean _really_ met him, do you know what he said to me?"

When Zoro didn't answer, he continued. "He spent ten years trying to repay a debt to a man who saved him because he _loved_ him. Ten years carrying a burden that he made up in his own mind. What do you think he's going to do with the one you've given him?"

"What do you want me to do? I don't know how to talk to him."

Luffy gave him an incredulous look. "You talk with your mouth, Zoro. If I have to teach you that…"

"Shut up, captain."

Luffy snorted and leaned against him as he tried to contain his laughter. Zoro grinned and let him throw an arm around his shoulders, but as he looked down at the captain's thin frame, he remembered the ball of pain and Kuma's paw as it held his limp, lifeless body in its grasp.

"What about your burden? Do you expect me to watch you carry that by yourself?"

Luffy's face looked otherworldly in the light of the electricity-laced clouds overhead, and his eyes held a fey, laughing glow. "Just ask if you want to, and I'll share it too."

* * *

There was a good probability that he had a slight concussion, and combined with the contusion on his shoulder and his torn side, Sanji probably should have been laid up in the infirmary, or at least not out here in the middle of the storm. But he had been raised out on the sea, and if there was one thing that he had held onto throughout his life it was that there was nothing a little saltwater couldn't heal. Besides, it was the one place he was certain that he could avoid absolutely everyone in the world right now.

Cool, dark blue surrounded him as he pressed his back against the harbor floor, watching the rise and fall of the ships on the stormy surface. The water was murky with the agitation of the waves against the sand and dirt, but it was peaceful and quiet down here; the storm could rage on forever up there, and he wouldn't care one bit.

He would have to come up for air eventually.

He would return to the surface, where a world of problems and fuck-ups waited for him with open arms. Sanji narrowed his eyes. Why was it that most of his problems were caused by stupid, huge meathead Neanderthal types who just didn't know when to leave him alone? Between Zoro, that Khalashtrogos, and Duval, he'd had one shitty, awful week, and all he wanted was to get as far away as possible from all of them.

It wasn't entirely true, if he was being honest with himself. He'd had a part in what had happened, and if he wasn't such a coward then maybe he could have talked things over with Zoro, and maybe there was nothing he could do about Duval and Khalashtrogos (though he was grateful for the information on Endwolle that Duval had given him), but at least he could have fixed things with his own _nakama_.

The Thriller Bark conversation had not been the best idea, in retrospect, and he started to realize that maybe he should have considered Zoro's side of the matter. _I'm not the only one who suffered…I've probably suffered the least._

He had been acting so selfishly all this time, and what he should have thought about was about the swordsman's best interests. He almost died protecting them all and here he was trying to make him relive the whole experience just to satisfy his own wants.

_I…don't want him to suffer anymore._

If Zoro let him, he would apologize for everything and drop the whole matter, he decided as he broke the surface of the water, taking a huge gulp of air. The cold, howling wind stung at the gash on his head, but his head felt clear and the pain in his shoulder had faded as well. Duval's medicine had worked wonders on his wound that he even forgot that he had ever gotten injured there. By the morning, he knew that he would be as good as new.

If Zoro let him, Sanji was going to be just fine.

* * *

The lights were out when Zoro entered the men's quarters, and Usopp groaned when he let the hallway light in through the open door.

"God, Zoro," he moaned, pulling the sheets over his head. "Go to bed already."

"Shut up, Usopp; you'll wake up the entire ship with your bawling."

He slipped his shoes off and crept barefoot across the cold floor, reaching the end of the row of beds where the cook was already lying silently, his back turned towards the others. Zoro knelt down next to his bed and frowned, clenching his hands against his thighs as he tried to figure out how to go about this. Finally, he raised a tentative hand and pressed down on the very edge of the bed.

Sanji's eyes opened a crack, and he looked at Zoro wearily over his shoulder. "Mm? Mosshead?"

"I'm sorry I tried to split your head open earlier."

"You weren't trying to do that. Just happened somehow."

Despite his apprehension and nervousness, he laughed, and the sniper hissed out a curse. Sanji quirked a smile at him and whispered, "Sorry for ignoring you all week, and for the shit I said."

"I said some shit too. Sorry about that."

A quiet chuckle, and then the blankets rustled as the cook rolled over to face him.

"Could we…try again tomorrow?"

Zoro nodded. "Yeah. We can."

"Good…apology accepted."

"You took the words right out of my mouth."

He heard Sanji yawn and slowly curl up in his bed, tucking the sheets in around himself, and his breathing soon evened out. "Stupid…marimo…"

Zoro climbed into his own bed and closed his eyes, letting his nakama's breathing lull him to sleep. He resolved to try again in the morning, to try with an open mind, no matter how it hurt to think of the island ship and what had happened there, because his crewmate needed him to. He did this with the hopeful, naïve thought that everything would be fixed tomorrow, because who could have seen what the morning would bring, and when would anyone have believed that things could have gone so wrong, and how could he have ever known that the cook would never leave Staithe Wharf with them? He slept peacefully and none of those thoughts ever crossed his mind that evening.

The next morning, Sanji was the only one who didn't wake up.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note:** So, despite the note I left in the previous chapter, I believe I was too cruel with that cliffhanger. So, you may have another one (it's not as bad as last time)! I'm sorry; I keep trying to make things better for the crew, but there is a _lot_ of downhill from here on out. It won't be all doom and gloom, of course, and like I promised, there will be **no major character deaths** in this story (if you like, I do have another story on my profile which starts off with a really painful one; you can probably pick it out by the fact that it has a really sad title). I do hope you're enjoying this story and where the plot goes; and as always, thank you so much for reading and reviewing.

* * *

Brook would have rubbed the sleep from his eyes, but of course, he had none (ohoho, skull joke!); his body still felt the aches and general stiffness that came after a night of sleep spent in an awkward position. He didn't even have a neuromuscular system anymore. It was strange how Devil Fruits worked, like the way Luffy's clothes stretched with his impossibly elastic frame, or how Chopper and Robin could either reshape their own structure at will or completely build a new body out of nothing but the particles in the air. The fruits' abilities bordered on near miracles, and he wondered whether his own abilities were truly a curse, as he had often found himself believing in the decades spent on that ghost ship all alone.

_At least, I was given the chance to meet these wonderful people._

He relished in a few extra moments in bed, seeing as the musician would not be needed yet out on the decks until they prepared to set sail, so he listened to Usopp calibrate his Kabuto's Dial in the sitting area and chuckled when the shipwright dragged himself miserably from the bed, moaning about the early morning hour.

"After this is over, I'm sleeping until noon."

Brook smiled and replied somewhere from under his blankets. "As long as you get us through this current first, Mr. Shipwright."

"Keh, _fine_."

The cook wasn't up yet, which was the strangest thing he had ever seen because in the few weeks that he had known this crew, Sanji was up way before anyone else; he was rarely seen anywhere but in the galley or up on deck serving the ladies and helping with the ship's steering. Today, he was still tucked in under a pile of blankets, and by the mismatched look of them Brook guessed that he had gone to retrieve some from the linen closet at least once last night. Hearing his captain's call for breakfast from the hallway, Brook decided to go rouse the cook and give him a few minutes to prepare himself for Luffy's relentless demands for food.

"Sanji-san," he called softly, placing his hand on the edge of the bottom bunk as he leaned over. "I believe you've overslept, _just_ a tad. There's still plenty of time to make breakfast, of course."

The blond head was still against the white pillows and various colored sheets.

"Sanji, it's time to wake up. The captain seems to be getting desperate."

He didn't even stir.

"Sanji?"

Concerned that he was in a much deeper sleep than he had expected, the musician reached over to shake his shoulder gently. His hand stopped right over Sanji's blankets; the heat coming off of him was incredible. Frowning, Brook moved around to the other side of the bed, and he would have paled had he any skin left. The cook wasn't even moving, and for a brief moment he would have suspected that he wasn't breathing either if not for the fact that every once in a while, the mound of blankets rose and fell slightly. His skin was paper white, and even his lips were pale and colorless.

He remembered the grey, weary faces of his late nakama during their last days, and then Brook straightened up with a panicked cry. "D-doctor! We need a doctor in here!"

Usopp glanced up sharply just as Luffy poked his head into the room. "Eh, what's wrong, Brook? Why's Sanji still in bed and not making me breakfast?"

The sniper watched Luffy bound over to Brook's side at Sanji's bed. His eyes held a look of disbelief; he hadn't even realized that Sanji was still there. "Oi, what's going on?"

"I…I don't know." The musician had backed into the next bed and was seated at the edge of it, a stricken, fearful look on his bleached skeletal features. "But I think we need Chopper, _now_."

Usopp took one look at Sanji's face and made for the doorway to search for the doctor, calling out over his shoulder, "Get him on his back and propped up on some pillows; the blankets are obstructing his breathing, so remove what you can and try to help him cool down somehow. I'll find Chopper."

His own trembling couldn't, _wouldn't_ stop, no matter how he promised himself that this wasn't like last time (he _wasn't_ going to be left alone again), and he felt Luffy drape a blanket over his shoulders before turning his attention to Sanji's care.

("Don't worry; I have to take care of Sanji first, but then I'll protect you, Brook.")

Somewhere between Luffy's promise and the scream, the musician found himself nodding numbly, unable to remove his gaze from Sanji's unnatural complexion and his eerie stillness. Even with the demons of his past clawing at the inside of his mind, he trusted Luffy, because the captain had never let him down once. He was not going to abandon him either.

When Luffy grabbed Sanji to turn him over, there was a sudden change in the energy in the air, and then the captain _howled_, recoiling and letting go of the cook's shoulders as he stumbled away from the bed. Brook had never heard such an awful scream before, not from their captain, and he leapt up from the bed to catch him before he collapsed.

_"Luffy!" _

His cry of pain had caught the attention of the rest of the crew, and Zoro burst in looking like someone had just shaken his world, eyes wide and desperate as he quickly scanned the room for the captain. Luffy was in Brook's arms, trembling violently as he hugged his arms to himself; he was doubled over and barely on his feet, even with the musician supporting most of his weight.

Usopp ran in with Chopper just then, and the sniper quickly moved to Sanji's side. "What's going on? Has he woken up yet, guys?"

_"Don't. Touch. Him."_

They had never heard so much pain in his voice, and when he looked up, there was a strained, pale expression on his usually bright and cheerful face.

Zoro grabbed his shoulders weakly. "Luffy, look at me. What happened?"

"It's…I was turning him over," Luffy managed between hissing pants, still hiding his hands from them. "And I...his skin…m-my _hands_-"

Without waiting for further explanation, Zoro wrenched his arms out, and Luffy gave a pained cry. His palms were covered in angry blistering scars, raw and dark red on the soft flesh. He couldn't seem to keep his hands from trembling, even with Zoro's firm grip on his wrists. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"You got this just from touching him?"

"U-uh-huh. What's wrong with him, Chopper? Can you fix him?"

Chopper looked at the wounds critically, glancing between Luffy's hands and the bedridden cook. "…Zoro, I need you to help him wash them out; we need to apply something on his hands for the pain."

"What the hell is that?" Usopp frowned in the direction of the infirmary, where Zoro had dragged their captain to wash up in the emergency bath. "How did Sanji give him that just through skin contact?"

Brook shook his head. "No, I saw Luffy grab his shoulder with his right hand; the other only came into contact with the sheets. But he has burns on _both_ of his hands."

"Sanji, can you hear me?" Chopper had approached the bed, edging as close as he dared without touching anything in direct contact with the cook. He cautiously drew out a thermometer from his medical bag, "I'm going to take a reading of your temperature right now; if you understand what I'm saying, just nod your head."

A feeble whimper came from underneath the sheets, and Chopper took a deep breath and nodded. "I know it hurts, but I need you to work with me. Can you open up for me?"

There was no verbal response, but he did cooperate long enough for Chopper to get a good reading. He was not liking what the signs pointed to.

"Why has he died?" Chopper's eyes widened in surprise; he hadn't expected such a coherent response from someone with a temperature this high.

"No one has died, Sanji," he said gently, wishing that he could just throw his arms around the cook and hug him tightly, all professionalism be damned, but even now he couldn't risk exposing himself to whatever this infection was. "Everyone is fine, and you're going to be fine, too. We'll cure you, I promise."

But Sanji was already unconscious again.

* * *

Brook watched Chopper examine the swabs he had taken from the wounds on Luffy's hands and compare them to the samples he retrieved from the cook. The doctor was muttering under his breath as he worked, referring to a huge pile of medical books that he had pulled from his shelves for this.

The captain lay on the medical room bed in an uncharacteristic silence; he stared blankly at his hands and tried clenching them occasionally, to which the navigator responded with a half-hearted chiding and a weary sigh. Nami rubbed his knee soothingly and kept her gaze averted from the angry wounds, looking like she hated sitting there helplessly while her friends were suffering.

"It's going to be alright, Nami." She looked up at the musician and smiled weakly, squeezing Luffy's knee in reflex. The captain didn't even move at her touch.

"I-I know, Brook. It's just nerve-wracking. Why did this have to happen now, when we were about to leave?"

"The others can take care of things on deck; they may not have the best navigator in the world, but Issok is also a fine helmsman. They'll be okay without us for a while."

A hushed string of curses erupted from the opposite end of the room, and they glanced at the doctor in surprise. Luffy's eyes flickered over briefly before settling back on the empty space between his hands where they lay on the bed.

"Chopper?"

"..sorry, sorry. This thing is just confounding the wits out of me." He peered into the microscope and fiddled with the fine focus nervously. "We're running on limited time, and neither of their conditions are improving. Why this doesn't work like any virus or bacteria I've ever seen is beyond me."

"We've been a bad influence on you, haven't we?" Nami chuckled, and he blushed as pink as his hat. "But you're going to figure this out, Chopper. You're the best doctor we could ask for, after all."

"Complimenting me doesn't make me happy, idiot!" He was just able to swivel the chair away from his worktable in time to avoid knocking anything over with his flailing arms and pleased dance. "Now let me work in peace; I said you could keep Luffy company as long as you didn't interrupt my research!"

"Ah! Sorry, doctor!"

"Cut it out, stupidheads!"

Brook was about to reply yet again when Nami jumped up and covered his mouth, and Chopper gave her a pleased nod before turning back to his notes. The others would occasionally pass through quietly, asking on Luffy's condition and whether they knew if the doctor was making any progress.

"Not yet," Nami muttered in the doorway, glancing over her shoulder at Chopper's hunched form. "Luffy's horribly quiet that it's scary, but the narcotics he was given earlier seem to be helping with the pain. How's Sanji?"

"He looks like death warmed over." Franky folded his arms over his chest and frowned. "Are you sure we can't touch him? He's burning up and drowning in his own sweat; I'm starting to think that he's going to dehydrate completely before the fever kills him."

"He's _not_ going to die." Nami's brown eyes flashed dangerously. "And don't you even think about touching anything _near_ him. The last thing we need is for you to lose your hands, _shipwright_."

"Tch, I never said I would. It's just worrisome, that's all. Can't even give him water; all we've been doing is taking turns sitting in the lounge area, staring at him lying there like a corpse."

Nami bit her lip and looked away, blinking rapidly. "Forget that; how's the plan coming along?"

"Besides the fact that we have two seriously ill crew members, not to mention that one of them is the goddamned _captain_, we're peachy. Could set out right now, under better circumstances." Franky ran his fingers through his hair and cursed lowly. "Shit, we have some luck for this to happen right now."

"Chopper doesn't want to make the call to remain in port just yet, but considering how bad Luffy's wounds are-"

"We're setting sail."

Brook blinked apologetically at the pair, the captain freed from his grasp and standing on his feet unsteadily. Luffy's eyes were determined and angry, even if he looked like he was ready to topple over.

Chopper turned around with a grim, terrible look in his eyes. "Luffy…"

"I don't care if you have to burn us both in order to destroy this thing and save yourselves, but none of us is going to stay in this port another minute longer. We set sail now."

"Captain, as your doctor I am going to have to insist that you lie down this _instant_!"

"Franky, call Thaddeus and tell him to head out now. We'll follow once I can get myself onto the main deck."

It took all four of them to strap the captain down to the bed, and even then he was still struggling through his drug-induced haze. They panted heavily and waited as Luffy's cries slowly faded, ignoring the hurt, betrayed glares that he shot at them. Nami rubbed her jaw tenderly; that was definitely going to bruise.

"He still has some fight in him," Franky chuckled weakly, swiping the blood away from a cut above his eye. "That's always a good thing."

"Oh, I don't like the look of this."

"Um. Sorry, Chopper?"

The doctor leaned over his specimens and waved them away, focusing on something that only he seemed to be able to distinguish in the lens of the viewer. He furrowed his brow and muttered under his breath about lymphocytes and the mutated progression of the invading substance in the samples, and about looking into some of the oncological books he had before trying to pinpoint his diagnosis. Then he stiffened somewhere between the word antibody resistant and vaccine, his eyes widened like he had just had a crucial realization, and he jumped down from his chair with a low growl. "I want everyone out of the men's quarters. _Now_."

He didn't wait to see if they followed his orders; he _expected_ them to, and the crew looked on down the hall after him worriedly. Chopper had an intense, piercing look in his eyes, and they had never seen him look so serious and grim. What could have set him off like this?

* * *

The remainder of the Booster Shot Four sprinted down the boardwalks of StaitheWharf with Zoro and Thaddeus, following the warpath their doctor had left behind on the docks. He had yet to attack anyone but had left many of the pirates out there terrified and whimpering about a monster (the 'Forest Giant', they called him). Zoro shot a warning glare at the bolder men who tried to stop them and led his group up the hill towards the dockmaster's offices, hoping that he hadn't already gone into Monster Point.

_Shit, what in the world set him off like this?_

They arrived just as Chopper had knocked down the second set of double doors separating the medical bay from the regular office area. "_Dockmaster_!"

The man turned away from the door he was unlocking only to freeze up at the sight of the Devil Fruit User's form. He dropped all of his folders, letting the papers spill freely all over the floor.

"Oh…my…God…"

Chopper seethed, and in his Heavy Point he looked already dangerously on the verge of a second transformation. "_Where are your so-called doctors? Bring me those quacks before I decide that this whole place could use a remodeling job via Cloven Roseo."_

Zoro stepped between them, a hand resting tentatively on his swords. "Chopper! What the hell is going on?"

He fixed a fiery glare at the swordsman. _"Don't interrupt; I'm just doing my job."_

"By threatening innocent people?" Nami cried, clutching her Clima-Tact to her chest protectively. Behind her Franky and Usopp prepared for battle hesitantly; no one wanted to be the one to attack their own crewmate. "Chopper, please calm down and tell us what's going on first!"

_"Why don't you ask these fat ugly pigs what's been going on while our comrades have been dying? Wait, you can't, because they've been hiding in their own squalid waste out here, benefiting from the botched job they did with my crew just days ago!"_

He looked like he was about to launch an attack on the entire building, and Zoro doubted that he would be able to stop him alone in this condition, but then a young woman burst out from the group of doctors huddled behind the door that the Dockmaster was standing at.

"Wait!" She cried as she stepped in front of Zoro, arms spread protectively like she was actually planning to take the blow for him. If anything, he had to admire her courage and selflessness, even for a pirate like him. "Please, wait, doctor-san! What do you mean the procedure was botched?"

Chopper paused and fixed his eerie, glowing stare on the doctor, and she trembled but stayed her ground. _"Do you know what I found in one of the samples I took from my cook, 'doctor-san'? One of my crewmates who took your vaccine?"_

Nami's heart seemed to stop when he spoke the next words, and she could have given every beli she had ever owned just so he would take it back.

_"The virus was active."_

The young doctor clapped her hands over her mouth, eyes wide with horror, and somewhere behind her the Dockmaster fell to the ground in a dead faint. Everyone in the medical wing had gone deathly pale and silent, and Usopp actually dropped his Kabuto to the floor with a resonating clatter.

To their surprise, Chopper wavered. Tears trickled down into his thick fur, and he bit his lip to hold back his sobs, to no avail. "_Do you...do you know what it feels like…to know that you can't even touch your own patient…y-your_ own friend…that you can't even h-help them and some doctor you turned out to be, a-anyway, 'cause y-you can't handle a stupid trace of seastone that some idiots injected into his b-body!"

The doctor wrapped her arms around his shaking frame, and he visibly shrank before their eyes as she held him, until he was back in Brain Point, a huddled, trembling little ball of fur wailing in her embrace as they approached. Zoro knelt down beside her and held his hands out for their doctor, a weary frown on his face.

"I'm sorry for what happened," he began awkwardly, because Nami was still stricken, and Usopp was being held up by Franky's strength alone, even though the shipwright actually looked a little green around the gills, and Thaddeus watched them all in stoic silence. The task of salvaging the situation had been left to him, he supposed, cradling a sobbing Chopper to his chest while the young woman before them just shook her head tearfully.

It was the sudden noise at the main entrance that caught their attention, and they glanced over at the source of the strange, shuffling sound; it was like something was being dragged across the rubble.

Sanji stood in the doorway, illuminated by the breaking dawn on the horizon.

"Stop fucking staring at me like you've seen a goddamned ghost, fuckbastards."

With that eloquent address, he promptly passed out.

* * *

Usopp stared through the glass barrier separating them from the unconscious cook, and he realized that he had been pressing his nose against it when his breath fogged up the glass. He wiped away the fog and turned back toward the others seated in the medical bay office, where Frank and Zoro were arguing for Sanji's immediate release.

"You can't put him in a goddamn cell; are you completely out of your minds?" Franky was livid, pacing back and forth in front of the barrier. "That is a dying man in there! He needs medical attention, not a prison stay. What kind of doctors are you? Am I the only one who finds this totally insane? Nami, say something!"

The navigator looked up at him with a numb, tired expression, holding a catatonic Chopper in her arms. The doctor wouldn't respond to any of their questions or nudges, though he would occasionally give a hiccoughing sob that let them know that he was still alive.

Zoro growled; how had this day ended up taking such a drastic turn for the worse? "Look, I don't care if you guys can't help us; at least give us our cook back. We'll leave quietly and just forget this whole thing even happened."

The dockmaster had woken up and was seated behind one of the desks, though he looked a little pale. He shared a glance with the port doctors and nodded.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Koshiro, Miss Sami-swan. But you should just cut your losses and consider him dead. Burn his bedding, clothes, all belongings, and leave the wharf peaceably."

"You should consider yourself dead if you can't tell me how to fix him."

Chopper's red-eyed glare was enough to frighten the man, and he ducked down behind the young doctor from earlier. Usopp couldn't help the smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth; Chopper could be fiercely protective of his friends, and he actually made cute look terrifying (if he had a toddler-sized plush toy lookalike tell him with a dead-serious expression that he was actually going to murder him, he would be looking for a hiding place, too).

The doctor sighed and rubbed her arm uncomfortably. "Doctor-san, please understand. No one has seen the virus in its full form for two whole centuries; there is no available documentation for treating it outside of the prevention shots."

"Then make some documentation."

"I wish I could, but no one even knows how that form ended up in your friend's dose. It's not even supposed to exist anymore!"

Franky snorted. "Well, you kinda have living proof over there that it, in fact, _does_. How do you end up injecting someone with the wrong syringe?"

She buried her face in her hands and cried, "_I don't know, okay_? What can I say to make you understand?"

"Franky, back off," Zoro growled, shoving the shipwright back into his seat. "These people don't know. This wasn't done from out here."

"I think it would be in everyone's best interests if you would kindly take your leave." The dockmaster looked nervously out the back window and shuddered. "Now."

Nami frowned and followed the line of his gaze suspiciously. "Why have you been so insistent on getting us to leave all of a sudden? This port has always been really lenient with all procedures and customs, and now you want to kick us out because someone at HQ messes up an inoculation on us?"

"Please..."

Thaddeus saw the flare first as it shot up into the sky from the Sunny's position. He grabbed Zoro's shoulder and muttered, "Change of plans, we have to leave immediately."

"Now?" The swordsman glared when the second shot went up and pulled Nami to her feet. "Alright, we have to get out _now_; Franky, grab Sanji and run. I'll cover for you guys-"

"How many times do I have to tell you? He has no hope left. You'll only be dragging along an infected corpse before long, and then what will your crew do once you have an outbreak at sea?"

Zoro smirked and patted Chopper's head affectionately. "You must not have met our resident doctor, old man. Tony Tony Chopper is the one who is going to cure every disease in the world; this little headcold has nothing on him."

Chopper gave a genuine, bashful smile and slapped his hand away. "Flattery will get you everywhere, lawnhead!"

"You've been taking lessons from the shit-cook, huh?"

"I hate to interrupt your camaderie, gentlemen, but we really need to go if we want to make it out with the ships." Thaddeus led Usopp and Nami to the door, which in retrospect Zoro would always be eternally grateful for as they were well out of the way of the explosion that tore through half of the building in that same instant.

The next thing he knew, his world was engulfed in flames.

* * *

Sanji shivered on the cold concrete floor of the cell, wondering what had happened to his warm, comfortable bed back on the Sunny. He then realized that he had left the ship at some point, but he honestly couldn't remember where he had gone or how he had even made it there. His legs felt like Nami's favorite tangerine preserves, the one with the little lumps in it. _That_ was the feeling. It was familiar, but completely uncomfortable when he tried to stand up on them.

_I wonder how my legs would taste right now? _

Zeff would probably know. He really should ask him the next time he swung by the Baratie. They could compare recipes and techniques; he had learned a lot since he set out on the Merry and the shit geezer was sure to be pleased (not that he would ever admit it, but Sanji knew how to tell when he was impressed). And maybe he would even tell him about the All Blue, if he was in a charitable mood towards the old man.

Old man…there was an old man he remembered, and then he had ended up in here. Was he the reason that Sanji was in this cell?

Sanji hauled himself up, barely able to bring himself to a kneeling position on the ground. His palms scraped along the rubble, but the pain was nothing compared to the unbearable fever that wracked his mind and body. There was a ringing in his ears, and then he noticed the cool ocean breeze coming in from the north. At least, he assumed it was north. No other winds were as bitter nor as painful.

The rubble used to be a part of that wall over there, and what had happened to the door? He lifted his head at the sound of approaching footsteps and his vision blurred horribly. The next few moments he remembered in sensations, a flash of gold and green, the gentle clink of gold earrings and the hilt of a sword connecting with his left hand.

"Zoro...?"

His shoulder was as strong and solid as he remembered, and he let himself sink into the broad, warm embrace, wondering why he couldn't shake off the feeling that he was dreaming.

* * *

Nami found herself staring in horror out at the harbor, through the gaping hole that used to be the medical bay's main office in the building. She pushed past Usopp and Thaddeus and began to dig through the rubble, eyes searching frantically for any sign of her friends.

Somewhere nearby, she could hear Usopp speaking with someone, about biles and the forest but her focus was entirely on finding their nakama. "Chopper, Zoro, Franky…please answer me!"

"N-Nami…?"

Chopper's Heavy Point emerged from the wreckage with Zoro tucked under his arm. Zoro looked battered and bruised and there was blood spilling down his cheek from a bad head wound, but he was _alive_. The doctor's fur was missing in a lot of places, and there were the telltale signs of first and second-degree burns all over his body. He still smiled beautifully at the navigator and gave her a thumbs up. "He's going to be okay, Nami! I shielded him from the blast, so the damage is mostly superficial."

With tears welling up in her eyes, Nami grinned back and threw her arms around him. "Thank goodness you're alright, Chopper," she murmured into his fur. "I was so scared."

On the other side of the remains of the building, Thaddeus was helping a soot-covered Franky to his feet. "_Fuck_, what the hell was that?"

"Someone set off a projectile on the port; they think it came from one of the ships on the east docks." Their sniper joined them on the rubble, climbing carefully up to Nami's side and giving her a grim look. "The border guard is coming in right now to handle the situation, so now is the time to retreat to the ships and get the hell out of here."

Thaddeus nodded and looked out at the harbor. "We can still make it while it's chaos out there; the enemy pirates will be too busy with the guard to go after us. Not waiting for us to leave the port was their first mistake."

Usopp glanced at the intact barrier of the cell, already knowing what he would find in there. "There's something else. Sanji's missing."

_"What?"_

"That Khalabunga guy got in here right after the bomb went off, and he broke into the cell and made off with him. They say that he made his intentions clear: he's taking Sanji to the Biles." Pointing out at the dark, heavy forests of StaitheWharf, he told them about the hospital buried somewhere in the outer island, rumored to have years of extensive research on the Staithe Virus. "Supposedly, that's the place to be if you want to survive the virus."

Nami frowned; this was an unexpected turn of events. What reason did Khalashtrogos have for risking contact with the outer island's forbidden woods and Sanji's illness? "Does he know that he's a dead man as soon as he catches the virus?"

"Maybe he wants to repay Sanji for what he did for him that night," Chopper offered weakly, and Nami knew that they had to get the doctor and swordsman back to the ship to be treated as soon as possible. But they couldn't just leave Sanji behind.

Usopp seemed to have the same thought. "Captain Thaddeus, lead the others back to the ship. Whatever happens, everyone…don't look back."

"What are you saying, Usopp?" Nami asked suspiciously; she didn't like the look in the sniper's eyes. It was the crazy, daring look that he got when he resolved to do something incredibly brave and stupid. "You're coming with us, too."

"Sanji once came after me when I was lost; I think it's time I repaid the favor."

"No."

"Nami, I have to do this."

"You can't."

His smile was wide and sympathetic. "I'm sorry."

"_Please_, Usopp."

He took a deep, steadying breath and stepped away from the crew, nodding at the captain. "You should go now."

"_Usopp_!"

Thaddeus muttered a quick apology and scooped Nami up before she even had time to react. The others followed behind them, with Zoro cradled safely in Chopper's arms as they ran through the tumultuous disorder and chaos on the docks. The border guard was advancing steadily towards the fighting between the pirate crews, and there was smoke rising from the dockmaster's offices, but Nami could only focus on the lone sniper standing in the ruins, covering their retreat with his own special attacks and projectiles. It was enough to get the other pirates' attention, and as they turned on him she heard his yells over the din.

"I am the Great Sogeking, King of Snipers! If any of you cowards wants a fight, I'll be waiting in the Forests of Death for you all with my eight thousand followers! Can you survive to take the thirty million, I repeat, _thirty million_ on my head? The Sogeking will chew up your ambition and spit it back out in your face, bastards!"

"_Usopp_!" Tears streamed down her cheeks as she watched him disappear into the fray, and the fight spilled down into Staithe's forest. Thaddeus pulled himself up onto the Sunny with Chopper and yelled the signal for his own ship to haul anchor, but Franky held back and looked over his shoulder with a strange expression.

He glanced up at the rest of their crew and smiled affectionately. "I don't think I could get on this ship in good conscience without Curlybrow and Longnose."

Nami glared down at him shakily. "Then I'm coming with you, too."

"They need you here, Nami; there's no wiggly current if you're not there to help guide the ships."

She knew that he was right. Black Siet would make it with Issok, but for the two ships to make it into the Red Line current she had to come with the Sunny.

Nami's tears spilled faster, and she tried to smile at him. If anyone could survive Staithe's forbidden forests, it was her crewmates. "Bring them back safely, Franky."

"Will do, little sis."

He placed his palm against Sunny's hull and nodded up at the navigator. Holding back a sob, Nami pulled the Clima-Tact out and assembled the staff. Drawing the fog in was as easy as a flick of the wrist, and with some well aimed fireballs into the harbor, a great wall of mist rose up and engulfed the entire port, giving both ships the cover that they would need to leave undetected. The ship gave a sudden jolt as Franky shoved it away from the moorings, and as the engines whirred to life, she watched the mists swallowed him up completely.

* * *

The woods were deep and cool and peaceful; they looked like no one had disturbed them in centuries. No paths cut through the thick underbrush, and the only sign of life out there was the quiet chatter of the strange and unusual beasts of the island.

Khalashtrogos looked out over the edge of the cliffs at the harbor below; those fools who had attacked the Straw Hats and their friends were long since captured by now. It wasn't possible to see in this sudden fog that had come over the port, but the border guard had settled the matter swiftly and quickly.

He wondered whether they had survived the attack; it would come as a nasty shock to the Nord if it turned out that his crew had been lost in the battle. The young man had gone quiet after the first ten minutes, his body in shock from the explosion and fever, and now he simply hung over his shoulder limply, breathing so lightly that several times Khalashtrogos had believed him dead and had pulled him down to check.

He should have been dead by now, but he wasn't, and for that, he was determined to keep soldiering on through the woods.

_I'll keep going if you keep going, Nord. I'll keep going._


End file.
